Fiery Roses
by Yoshiko Kyoda
Summary: A mysterious chain of events has landed the Tantei in high school with no memories of being spirit detectives. There are some old faces that show up and maybe some new, but with one dare from Jin things start to get interesting!
1. A New Year, A New High School

Yoshiko: Hey there my loyal YYH readers! This would be my 4th Yu Yu Hakusho story. This one is an alternate universe type of thing. Which I think is cool (and unusual for my fics I think) because it's funny to imagine what life would have been like if none of them had met, weren't demons, and went to high school together. Plus, this fic is more serious than my previous YYH stories and focuses mainly on the romantic relationship of Hiei and Kurama. Beware anti-shounen ai people, you have been warned. So I hope you all enjoy it. Hiei, be a dear and say the disclaimer for me!

Hiei: Yoshiko doesn't own Yu Yu Hakusho and we're lucky she doesn't because everything would be screwed up.

Yoshiko: Nicely put!

Fiery Roses 

Chapter One: A new year, a new high school

The bad thing about being a freshman in high school is that to others you are fresh meat for the grinder. Not only that, but everyone is taller than you. Plus it doesn't help that our friend Hiei is short anyways. Yeah, he's the shortest goddamn freshman in the whole damn school! Not only that, but his day just wasn't off to a good start…

Most people were now heading to first period. Hiei's locker just happened to be on the opposite end of the school from first hour. Not that it really bothered him because he was the fastest person he knew. If there was one thing that was nice about high school (American public high schools anyway) is that there is no uniform or dress code. Hiei enjoyed wearing jeans and a loose black shirt instead of the old and stiff uniform. Up ahead were some lockers with a group of older guys hanging around, looking for mischief.

"Hey looky over there! That guy's _puny_! He'd have plenty of room to move around in if we stuffed him in a locker." One of the tallest sophomores in school pointed and laughed at Hiei, who wished looks could kill… After all, he can give some of the evilest of death glares. The big bloat walked over to him with his lame groupies. "Who are you, shrimp?"

Hiei ignored him for the most part; didn't even look at him but kept walking until he blocked Hiei's path. His blood red eyes met this guy's tiny black ones. "Don't you have any manners you fool? You should do the introducing before asking for someone else's name." Hiei glared.

"Kazuma Kuwabara and don't ya forget it shrimp or I'll pound ya!" Kuwabara cracked his knuckles just to prove his point.

"Hiei…" The spiky black-haired freshman pushed his way past Kuwabara and continued to first hour.

"Hey Kuwabara, I don't think you made a big enough impression on the little guy." One of Kuwabara's flunkies laughed.

"Oh yeah, then I'll just have to make one on his face!" Kuwabara turned Hiei around, grabbing the shirt collar of his black shirt, and pulled back his fist. Hiei immediately dropped his books, letting his right hand dig into his jean pocket so he could pull out something to make Kuwabara pay.

"Put him down right now before I make you regret the very day you were born and hit you so hard and deform your face so much that even your mother will hate you but she probably does anyway." A fast talking pink haired freshman ordered.

"Hiei would probably do the job faster than you could get over there, Jin." Another freshman with blue hair and spiky slightly green bangs laughed.

Kuwabara froze and glared at the other two. Hiei couldn't help but smirk. Touya was right; if Kuwabara had proceeded to hit him, Hiei would have pulled out the lighter in his pocket and burned the idiot's face off.

"Stop staring at us like a mindless fool and put our friend down or we will beat you senseless if there is even any sense left in that little brain of yours." Jin put his hands on his hips.

Kuwabara released his grip and dropped Hiei, who kneeled down and picked up the books he had dropped. With one last smirk at Kuwabara Hiei followed Jin and Touya to wherever first period was.

"I didn't need your help you know." Hiei muttered to Jin and Touya.

"Ah we know but friends stick up for each other, right? Besides, that oaf looked so stupid that he probably wouldn't even notice if his hair was on fire!" Jin laughed.

Touya snickered.

"Pay no mind when I say this but for some reason it's almost as if the air around him is thick with stupidity!" Jin pondered this.

"Like he lives in a constant haze of stupidity?" Hiei questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes! That's it exactly! Where do you come up with this stuff anyway, Hiei?" Jin peered down at him curiously.

Hiei shrugged. Besides it felt as if he _had_ said that to Kuwabara before but that couldn't be possible for he didn't recall ever seeing him before in his entire life.

Leaning against some nearby lockers was a redheaded sophomore, wearing loose khakis and an un-tucked red button up shirt, who had been watching the whole scenario. If need had been, Kurama would've stepped in but he usually didn't like to involve himself with the quarrels of others. Letting out a low sigh Kurama joined his own friend, Yusuke and his girlfriend Keiko.

"Kuwabara picking another fight?" Yusuke asked, already guessing the answer. He draped his arm around Keiko's waist and she shoved his arm away.

"Yes." Kurama answered with no hint of emotion to his voice.

"That guy needs a hobby." Yusuke shook his head.

Keiko grabbed Yusuke's arm and started pulling him to their first class. "Come on, Yusuke! I don't want to get in trouble just because you were loitering in the halls and made me late!"

As Yusuke was dragged away by force, he was yelling, "I don't care if I'm late! Let go of me, Keiko! Kurama, help me!" Kurama couldn't help but chuckle.

When his two friends disappeared from sight, Kurama sighed and began walking up the stairs to his own class. It was a shame that he didn't share the same first hour as Yusuke and Keiko. No, instead he had first hour with…

"Hello Kurama…" Came the cool and calm voice much like his own.

Speak of the devil! Kurama narrowed his eyes at the lean guy with lengthy black hair, leaning against the next flight of stairs. "Karasu, to you I am Shuuichi. You have no right to call me Kurama as if we were well acquainted."

"All right then, _Shuuichi_. I apologize." Karasu mocked.

"What do you want?" Kurama sighed and quickened his pace; he really wished Karasu would go to hell or drown himself and just leave Kurama alone.

"You _know_ what I want." Karasu laughed lightly while wrapping an arm around Kurama and leaning close to his fair face.

Kurama jerked his face away and pushed Karasu into a wall. The red-head's stubbornness only seemed to make Karasu want him even more. Flinging the classroom door wide open, Kurama stomped into class. Everyone had ceased what they were doing upon his arrival. Students glanced up from their note-taking. The social studies teacher was very displeased at having his lecture interrupted.

"You're late, Shuuichi." The teacher glared. "Karasu…" He added when Karasu entered the room.

"Sorry Mr. Hall. It won't happen again." Kurama reassured and took a vacant seat at the back of the class.

"It was _his_ fault." Karasu teased and pointed towards the enraged Kurama.

"Whatever, just take a seat." Mr. Hall sighed. Mush to the displeasure of Karasu (and to Kurama's relief) the only unoccupied seat available was in the very front of the class.

.

"BUT IT'S MY NATURAL COLOR!!!" Jin pleaded.

The three of them had been sent to detention first thing on account of their hair being 'unacceptable'.

"The _nerve_ of you three to come to school like that! And on your very first day, too!" The evil principle named Ms. Goodwin argued with Jin. Touya and Hiei sat there quietly.

"I tell ya it's my natural hair color! You can even look at my roots!!!" Jin jumped up and down like a little kid and shoved his hair into Ms. Goodwin's face to show her, which only pissed her off more. "Ask my mother! Ask Hiei or Touya! Ask _their_ parents! But please don't expel us!!!" Jin got down on his knees and begged.

Hiei and Touya sweat dropped anime style while the principle was taken aback by Jin's desperation.

"Okay, okay! I'll let it slide! Let _go_ of my leg, Jin!" Ms. Goodwin yelled at the boy clinging to her leg for forgiveness. "First Kurama and Yukina… now these three…" She mumbled quietly.

"Whoopee!" Jin released her leg and jumped up and down again. "You won't regret it Ms. G! Thank you! Well we'll be outta your office faster than a tornado ripping a house from its foundations! See ya! Gotta go! Bye bye!" Jin grabbed the other two and raced out of the principle's office.

"Uh… right…" Ms. Goodwin went back to doing paperwork and plotting how she could ruin the lives of her students.

.

"How was the social studies from hell?" Yusuke asked when Kurama approached him and Keiko.

"It could have gone better." Kurama responded in a monotone. "Did you enjoy Family Consumer Sciences?"

"Yusuke burnt the pretzels we were cooking!" Keiko grumbled.

"They didn't look done!" Yusuke retorted.

"So your idea of done is crispy and BLACK?!" Keiko shouted.

"It added a UNIQUE flavor to it!" Argued Yusuke. Passerby's started to stop and stare at the violent couple.

"A lover's spat…" Kurama chuckled.

Over the intercom, Ms. Goodwin ordered all freshmen and sophomores to the auditorium for an announcement.

"What's that about?" Yusuke wondered.

"I heard from a student council meeting that she is setting up a program for the first years and sophomores to be partnered together." Keiko recalled.

"She's just _trying _to ruin our lives, isn't she?!"

Yes Yusuke, yes she is…

.TO BE CONTINUED.

Next time, everyone finds out what the evil principle is planning and the freshmen and sophomores get to spend a little quality time getting to know each other. Review please.


	2. Obligation

Yoshiko: Well, it seems a few people enjoy my high schoolness and slightly OOCness mixed in with all the Yu Yu Hakusho characters and my insanity!

Yusuke: They must all be _nuts_!

Yoshiko: Shut up Yusuke!

Chapter Two: Obligation

Tall people, short people, freshmen, and sophomores alike all filed into the auditorium noisily. The evil principle tapped on the microphone to get everyone's attention. "Listen up! The freshmen and sophomores are being paired together so that you all can become friends!"

"Yes, let's _all_ become _friends_." Added a psychotic councilor slowly; the councilor had apparently been there at the school too long…

The entire student body gasped and then booed at the horrendous idea. Ms. Goodwin's eyes bulged. "Shut your mouths! It's that kind of attitude that's gotten your sorry asses in this situation in the first place!" Ms. Goodwin exploded, unfortunately she didn't explode literally… that would be _very_ wishful thinking. "You are forced to spend at least two days with your partner. You can do whatever you want together whether it be just hanging out or spending the night at each other's houses. I'll be asking parents how much time you spend together so no trying to sneak out of this one. Plus a report is due about what you learned about your partner. Now shut up so I can announce the partners!"

Everyone went dead silent.

"Shuuichi Minamino, you're with Hiei. Yusuke Urameshi, your partner is Jin. Keiko Yukimura, Touya is yours. Kazuma Kuwabara, you're stuck with Rinku. And what is it with all the freshmen just having a first name?! Karasu…" The names were ticked off one by one as she read down the list.

From his seat, Kurama blinked. Wasn't Hiei the short boy he saw fighting with Kuwabara this morning? Oh… joy… Nothing against the spiky-headed freak, but Kurama just didn't want to get involved with this inane buddy program.

.

Later that day, the first two year students were very disgruntled about their new assignment. Even though the rest of the day passed without anything else of interest happening, a displeased air hung in the hallways.

Kurama shut his locker and started walking down the hallway wondering what he should do. Since this stupid new program was forced upon them, Yusuke was going to get this over with quick by inviting Jin over to his place for two days while Keiko was also thinking about doing the same.

"Let's go, Urameshi!!! Where do you live, huh? Huh? How does your hair stay like that? Do you use super glue?" Apparently Yusuke was being dragged down the hall by Jin, making a scene.

Kurama stifled a laugh when Yusuke turned his head to face him and glared as if to say 'shut up, I can't help it this guy's a Looney!' A cluster of lockers was coming up in Kurama's path. Hiei was in the company of a blue-haired girl with crimson eyes that matched Hiei's. The short boy slammed his locker shut and slung his black back pack over his shoulder.

"Hiei?"

Half turning, Hiei gave Kurama a questioning look. "What?"

"I'm Shuuichi." Kurama introduced. A few minutes passed while the two of them stared at each other silently. "If you have the time, why not stay at my house for a day or two?" The red-head tried to suggest inconspicuously.

Hiei glanced at the blue-haired girl; she nodded and left the building. "Let's get this over with." Hiei said what was on both of their minds and sighed.

.

"Kaa-san, I'm home." Kurama announced with a sulking Hiei trailing after him.

"Welcome home, Shuuichi dear." Shiori smiled from the kitchen. "Is that a… _young_ friend of yours?" She asked, gesturing to the shifty-eyed Hiei.

"He's only _one_ year younger than me, Kaa-san." Kurama sighed and explained the reason for Hiei being there.

Hiei, however, was looking around with mild curiosity. There were a multitude of plants hanging from the ceiling and sitting on the windowsills. The rooms itself were covered in earthy tones.

"My room is this way." Kurama interrupted Hiei's train of thought. Hiei nodded and silently followed Kurama to another room down the hallway.

Kurama's room was a soft yellow and actually pretty plain and simple by the looks of it. The small room was really clean and only had a closet, bed, and desk with several of his school supplies scattered on it. The window above his bed was open and letting in a refreshing breeze. A long, awkward silence hung in the air. Kurama took a seat at his desk and stared out the window. Hiei wonder where he would be sleeping since he would be staying the night.

"Well… since I only have one bed… I hope you don't mind if you…" Kurama scratched the back of his head.

"If I what?" Hiei raised an eyebrow.

"Sleep on the floor." Kurama answered lamely.

"No… I don't mind." There was another long pause and Hiei kept giving Kurama weird sidelong looks. "Are you gay?" Hiei asked randomly.

"W-what?!" Kurama felt his cheeks turning dark red.

"I'm asking because your long hair makes you look like a girl." Hiei gave the red-head a don't-even-_try_-lying look.

The first thing that popped into Kurama's mind was Karasu and he had to shake his head vigorously to rid himself of the image. "No." Kurama answered quickly. Hiei nodded skeptically.

"Shuuichi!" Shiori called. "Yusuke is here with his pink-haired friend."

"Pink hair? Jin?" Hiei wondered; the two of them headed back into the living room, where Yusuke and Jin were waiting for them.

.TO BE CONTINUED.

Sorry for a shorter chapter, but I just felt that was a good place to stop. Thank you everyone for your reviews, it's what makes the chapters come out faster. Though, I should really be working on my _unfinished_ stories…


	3. The dare and some sweet snow

You know… I personally think Jin has pink hair even though I have heard some people say it was red but to me it looks pink… even Kurama's sometimes looks pink! I'm color blind!!!

Chapter Three: The dare and some sweet snow

"Help me, Kurama! Jin is driving me nuts!" Yusuke pleaded to his friend in exasperation.

"Oh I am, Urameshi? Sorry, I'm just hyped about meeting someone new! We're gonna be friends, right Urameshi?" Jin grinned.

"Down, Jin." Hiei ordered when he entered the room.

"You're here too, Hiei? Whoo! This calls for a game! What should we play?" Jin jumped up and down.

A man and young boy were heading out the door with Shiori. "We're going out to eat, Shuuichi."

"Bye Kaa-san." Kurama waved.

"Let's play truth or dare!" Jin exclaimed. "Hiei, dare!"

"You're supposed to give me a choice between truth and dare." Hiei pointed out.

"I chose _for_ you! Hiei, I dare you to kiss that girl!" Jin pointed to Kurama.

"I'm a **GUY**!!!" Kurama shouted.

"Oh… well this will be interesting then!" Jin peered at the two of them, expectantly.

"I will NOT kiss HIM!!!" Hiei refused stubbornly.

Yusuke was rolling on the ground he was laughing so hard. When he could finally catch his breath he grinned at Jin. "I _knew_ I liked you!" Jin and Yusuke started chanting together, "Kiss! Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!"

Hiei stood his ground but alas peer pressure won. Pissed off, Hiei leaned towards Kurama's cheek bitterly. Jin clicked his tongue disapprovingly. "Mouth to mouth, Hiei!"

"Hell no!" The short boy declared.

"Don't make me add tongue!" Jin threatened and would be more than happy to add it if Hiei wouldn't cooperate.

Hiei flushed bright red and Kurama's face started matching his hair. When they refused, Jin and Yusuke just made their chanting more insistent. Kurama and Hiei faced one another; emerald green eyes met blood red ones. The flustered duo leaned into each other and brushed their lips briefly before pulling back immediately and not making eye contact with the other.

"Awww… you're no fun, Hiei. That wasn't even one second long." Jin complained.

Getting to his feet and still blushing furiously, Hiei pointed at Yusuke. "So why don't you kiss _him_ then, Jin?!"

"Because that would be being disloyal to my _koibito_." Jin winked.

"I think I'm gonna drop out of this game." Yusuke could hardly stop laughing.

"I will as well." Kurama admitted sheepishly.

"Now do me, Hiei!" Jin bounced on the couch.

"I _dare_ you to go drown yourself!" Hiei snarled.

"Okay!" Jin hopped up out of his seat to dash out the door when Yusuke grabbed him by the arm and yanked him back onto the couch.

"Sit boy." Yusuke ordered. "But actually, we better get going anyways. I want to go see how Keiko is doing."

"Does that mean I get to see Touya?" Jin wondered and Yusuke nodded. "Whoopee! Let's go!" Jin raced out the door again in a hurry. Yusuke waved and closed the door behind him.

Kurama stood and went to the kitchen. "I'll get some ice cream." In his mind he felt very uncomfortable with having Hiei around after that dare. The sooner this ends the better…

Hiei gazed after Kurama absentmindedly. He really wanted to kill Jin now but… the kiss wasn't _that_ bad. When his face was so close to Kurama's, he could smell the faint scent of roses. Bringing his fingertips to his lips, Hiei remembered the feeling of their lips pressed together.

Kurama re-entered the room, head hung low from Jin's dare, and handed Hiei a bowl of vanilla ice cream.

"What's this?" Hiei examined the ice cream.

Kurama accidentally dropped his spoon in his own bowl. "You _don't_ know what ice cream is?" Hiei shook his head. "Well just try it."

Hesitantly, Hiei scooped up some ice cream in his spoon and tasted it. Instantly his red eyes lit up. "This is great!" Hiei started eating it faster and Kurama gaped at him. How could Hiei eat the ice cream so fast without getting a brain freeze? "Can I have some more?" Hiei was looking at his empty bowl sadly.

"Uh… sure…" Kurama went back to the kitchen for more when he hadn't even finished half of his own. "How about I make you a root beer float?" The red-head poked his head out of the kitchen for Hiei's response.

"What's a root beer float?" Hiei was beginning to feel very stupid.

Kurama smiled and stepped back into the kitchen. This might not be so bad after all… Reaching for a mug, he scooped some more ice cream into it, and poured root beer into the mug. He returned to the living room, giving the mug to the curious Hiei. Hiei stared at the float for a few minutes, wondering how to eat it. Kurama, upon noticing this, took Hiei's spoon and spooned some of the ice cream out of the mug. Hiei was about to take the spoon from Kurama when the red-head ordered, "Open up." Raising an eyebrow, Hiei did as he was told. The spoon entered his mouth. Vanilla ice cream with a hint of root beer flavoring melted on his tongue. Kurama released the spoon and let Hiei finish the float himself. The confused red-head couldn't help but wonder why he did that. After all, Hiei was more than capable of feeding himself. This made Kurama feel uneasy. But he decided he better change the subject before Hiei himself questioned him for an answer he couldn't give.

"I saw Kuwabara picking a fight with you this morning." Kurama mentioned to start up a conversation.

 Hiei nodded content with his ice cream. Kurama's gaze softened on the short boy. His first impression of Hiei hadn't been the greatest. At first glance, he seemed cold and harsh with a fiery temper. But really, he was kind of shy and insecure. Hiei started chugging his root beer but stopped before he started choking on it.

"Still hungry?" Kurama asked, wondering if there was any ice cream left.

Hiei set his mug down. "I wouldn't mind having some more sweet snow."

"Sweet snow?" Kurama wondered.

"Or whatever you called it." Hiei waved his hand dismissively.

Kurama made his third trip into the kitchen and made a banana split for Hiei. They both sat in a contented silence, each finishing their own share of ice cream. The front door clicked open and Shiori, little Shuichi, and Kurama's step father entered their home. Shiori walked into the kitchen to see an open tub of ice cream, a banana peel on the counter, dirty bowls and mugs, and other good ice cream toppings.

"Shuuichi! What's the meaning of this?!" She demanded her eldest son.

Kurama sighed. "We were just eating ice cream." He said in a quiet voice.

Hiei had finished his third round of ice cream and was now watching Kurama intently. For a little while there it seemed like Kurama had been opening up to him. Now he seemed distant… like before. With no emotions on his face he just took his mother's complaining.

"You two should go to bed now anyway." Shiori sighed and cleaned up the kitchen.

Kurama nodded silently and led Hiei back to his room. Neither of them spoke the rest of the evening. Hiei slept on the floor with some blankets and stuff. Kurama stared out his window at the moon, thinking. He didn't look forward to going to school tomorrow. If only Karasu would just leave him alone…

.TO BE CONTINUED.


	4. On the edge

Chapter Four: On the Edge

The two former demons walked down the sidewalk toward school silently. Kurama had become his distant self while Hiei was inwardly kicking himself for dropping his guard yesterday and refused to drop his cold exterior today. A familiar blue-haired male and Keiko were walking along ahead of them. Touya glanced over his shoulder by chance and smiled warmly at Hiei.

"Yo Hiei!" He waved and waited for Hiei.

Hiei stopped short of his friend and gave him a blank stare. Keiko realized Touya was not at her side and turned around to walk back to Kurama.

Touya put an arm on Hiei's shoulder and whispered to him while Kurama was distracted by Keiko. "Jin told me what happened yesterday between you and girly boy over there."

"So now he's gone and told you?" Hiei asked scathingly. "You may need to hold me back from killing him."

Knowing that this was a touchy subject for Hiei, Touya smiled and winked. "So how was it? Jin noticed you seemed pretty fussy afterwards."

"Shut up, it's none of your business." Hiei growled and continued walking.

Touya didn't want to push his luck or be put onto Hiei's hit list either, so he just strode next to his friend quietly.

Kurama and Keiko also started walking again. "So how is Hiei?" Keiko asked curiously. "Touya's been very nice to me. If it weren't for Yusuke I might dump him for Touya."

Kurama knew better than to take Keiko seriously. She always talked about dumping Yusuke because he could be a jerk but she would never actually do it. But in response to her question, Kurama shrugged.

"Some answer." Keiko teased.

Kurama shrugged again.

"Is something wrong?" Keiko looked into Kurama's green eyes with concern.

"No…" Kurama sighed.

The intelligent brown-haired sophomore was about to pursue the matter when an enraged outburst occurred ahead from Hiei.

"YUKINA, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING WITH **HIM**?!" Hiei shouted and pointed at Kuwabara who was walking with Hiei's twin sister, hand in hand.

"Hiei…" Yukina sighed. "He was escorting me to school because my partner ditched me."

When Kurama caught up with the others, he asked suspiciously, "Who is your partner?"

 "Karasu." Yukina responded.

"That would explain it. He has no interest in girls, only guys…" Kurama shuddered, only catching the attention of Hiei and Keiko.

"He'll pay for just abandoning my sister and leaving her with _this_ loser." Hiei scoffed at Kuwabara.

"Can it, shrimp!" Kuwabara shook his fist at the smaller boy. "If it weren't for yer two friends yesterday I woulda smashed your face in."

Hiei had had enough. Quicker than Kuwabara could follow, Hiei stepped in front of Kuwabara and flicked his lighter on under the oaf's chin. "Piss me off too much this morning and you won't _live_ to regret it…"

Kuwabara had a delayed reaction before letting out a yowl of pain. He jumped and backed away from Hiei. Yukina shook her head and sighed, "Hiei…"

The High school first bell rang in the distance and everyone ran to the school. Kurama raced down the hall praying he didn't run into the hall monitor. Keiko was in Family Consumer Science when Kurama ran past the door, catching a little bit of the conversation.

"Yukimura, I'm disappointed in you. I would expect this sort of behavior from Urameshi but not from you. I suggest you stop hanging around that trouble maker." The teacher was lecturing Keiko.

As far as Kurama's knowledge went, Kuwabara had been sent to detention, Touya had barely made it there on time, and Hiei had no problem getting to class before he got in trouble. "How can he be so fast?" Kurama panted and skidded to a halt in front of Social Studies.

"Minamino! I thought I told you not to be late anymore!" Mr. Hall demanded.

"You did, sir. I absolutely promise it won't happen again." Kurama caught his breath and sat in the last empty seat which was far from Karasu luckily. Speaking of the freak, he was giving Kurama a very amused look.

"Now that Mr. Minamino has arrived, may we continue?" Mr. Hall rolled his eyes and Kurama nodded.

Kurama was taking notes and glanced out the window. It was as nice a day as it had been yesterday; very sunny and mild temperatures. He inwardly scolded himself for being late two days in a row. Kurama wouldn't let himself be late for second hour though. Speaking of which, he didn't know what his second hour was! Second period had been interrupted yesterday by the announcement in the auditorium. Going through his folders, he found his schedule. Second hour was gym with all four grades mixed together. Of course he hoped Karasu didn't have the same class… that would be miserable. He already shared two classes with the stalker.

"Now in the 11th year of Meiji in Japan…" Mr. Hall droned on while the red-head zoned in and out. It was nice having Mr. Hall for Social Studies because you could daydream and even fall asleep without getting caught as long as you kept your grades up. (A/N: For 8th grade SS I had Mr. Hall and I often fell asleep without getting caught . )

The second bell rang and Kurama was one of the first ones out of class so he wouldn't be late for second period.

"What's your hurry, Shuuichi?" Karasu trailed after Kurama.

"Stalk someone else." Kurama spat bitterly.

"Aw, you hurt me with such harsh words, Shuuichi." Karasu wrapped his arm around Kurama's shoulders again.

Irritated, Kurama stopped suddenly. "Release me!" He ordered.

"What's the fun in that?" Karasu smirked but Kurama just bolted running again.

"Ignore him, ignore him, ignore him…" Kurama muttered under his breath. He reached the gym when Karasu caught up with him again and this time grabbed Kurama's arm and was walking alongside him. Furious, Kurama wrenched his hand from the stalker's grip and turned to see the entire gym class staring at him. And what was worse was that there were several familiar faces in the class. Yusuke was there and so were Hiei and Touya. Hiei had a strange look on his face, half shocked and half angry.

The muscular gym teacher rounded on Kurama and Karasu. "Change into your gym clothes and get in line." He said in a commanding monotone.

Just what Kurama needed… to have to change in a locker room along with Karasu. Clenching his fists, the red-head proceeded to the locker room and locked himself in a bathroom stall to change. The stupid gym clothes that the school provided was a real pain. Kurama wondered if the shorts were meant to be that short or if they got his size mixed up with someone like Hiei. But his gym uniform was a plain white T-shirt and short blue shorts that someone on the track team would wear. Sighing, Kurama unlocked the stall to find Karasu no where in sight. He often wondered why the stalker would just vanish.

"Mr. Toguro says you need to hurry up." Sneered a cold voice.

Kurama stiffened until he realized it was just Hiei leaning against the small gym lockers. He was giving Kurama a cold glare for who knows why. "Uh…" Kurama started walking out the locker room back to class.

"You should come to my house this evening so we can get this over with once and for all and never have to see each other again." Hiei folded his arms and followed Kurama.

"Fine…" Kurama watched the freshman walk right past him and out the door. What could be up with him? Kurama wondered…

. TO BE CONTINUED . 

Well… the chapter wasn't supposed to end here but hey, I think the next big event should be all one chapter. By the way, can someone tell me what Hiei's mom's name is?   


	5. Encounter

Thank you everyone who provided Hina's name to me!

**Chapter Five: Encounter**

Hiei, Touya, and Jin were all standing outside the school waiting. Touya was sweaty and miserable. He even had to go move into the shade of a nearby tree. Jin was also pretty warm from the outside temperatures. The morning had been mild but ever since lunchtime the temperatures just went through the roof.

"How can you stand this heat, Hiei?" Touya asked while fanning himself.

Hiei, who was wearing all black to top it off, just shrugged.

"It can be hot as a desert or cold as the poles but nothing bothers him!" Jin commented and was also fanning himself.

Keiko ran out of the school building into the smoldering heat. "I'm sorry I took so long, Touya! We can go home now." The blue-haired freshman was overjoyed and he and Keiko went off to her very _air conditioned_ home.

Jin sprawled out onto the grass in the shade. It was way to hot for him to be energetic at the moment so he just tried to be as still as possible. Yusuke trudged out of the school next; he had gotten hung up in detention again for something about beating someone half to death. "Let's go Jin before we melt…" With much effort, Jin sat up and started walking with Yusuke.

Hiei growled and kicked a rock. What was holding up Kurama anyway?

**... **

Kurama sighed; it had been a long and hot day. He realized Hiei was waiting outside the school for him but he was in no hurry. Checking to make sure he had all of his homework, Kurama noticed he had forgotten one of his books and sighed again. His locker was on the third floor where his missing book could be found. He turned on his heel to go back up the stairs. The school was almost entirely empty by now. The only students or teachers left were heading out the door to escape the hot hellhole of a school. The air conditioning wasn't working very well and everyone just wanted to go home. But how could he have forgotten his stupid book? Not to mentioned he had to do that report on what he learned about Hiei.

Okay…

He's a short, bad-tempered pyromaniac… that about summed Hiei up.

Thinking deeply about nothing, Kurama trekked to his locker and retrieved his textbook. Why was Hiei constantly so angry anyway?

Someone covered Kurama's mouth so no sound could be heard from the redhead. A leg hit the back of Kurama's knees making them buckle and he fell backwards onto the hard school tile floor. In a daze, Kurama looked up to see Karasu's face inches from his own. Karasu was snickering at catching Kurama off guard.

"Well _that_ was easy." Karasu noted, sarcastically.

Kurama yelled something at Karasu but all that could be heard was a muffled remark. Karasu laughed at Kurama's position. "No use struggling now, Shuuichi. There is no one here to hear you. Trust me I checked." Karasu smirked. Kurama's emerald eyes widened; did Hiei get fed up and go home?! Struggling to break free, Kurama was forced back down roughly by Karasu who was using his full weight to pin down Kurama. Karasu uncovered Kurama's mouth and pinned his wrists down with both hands.

"Karasu you bastard! Get off of me!" Kurama shouted.

"Quite some fire you've got to you." Karasu smiled wickedly and pinned Kurama's thighs with his knees.

"I said get off, damn it!" Kurama struggled all the more. Gritting his teeth, he tried but couldn't overpower Karasu in strength when he was pinned down in such a manner.

Karasu leaned down and whispered into Kurama's ear seductively, "I've been waiting patiently for this…"

Someone grabbed Karasu's shoulder and dug their nails into his flesh. Karasu glanced up and a fist connected with his jaw, knocking him off of the pinned Kurama. The shocked redhead looked up at a furious Hiei. "What the hell do you think you are doing?" He hissed at Karasu.

Karasu sat up and wiped blood from his mouth. "How dare you interfere…?" Karasu hissed back.

Hiei looked down on him and glared, and then he turned and started walking back out of the school. "Shuuichi collect your books and hurry up…" Hiei complained.

Scrambling to collect the books he had dropped, Kurama hurried after Hiei into the blazing sunlight. For a minute they walked in silence. "Um… Hiei?"

"What?" Hiei growled.

"Thank you…" Kurama sighed in relief.

"Don't thank me; I was just getting him back for ditching Yukina, Shuuichi." Hiei didn't look at Kurama.

Kurama stared at the ground, feeling hated. Hiei dug his hands into his pockets and didn't speak for a while. "I thought you had left because you got tired of waiting for me…" Kurama admitted quietly.

Hiei stopped and half-glanced back at Kurama. "I wouldn't have done that." He remarked and then mumbled something so Kurama couldn't hear. "For a minute there you had me worried…"

"You don't have to call me Shuuichi, you know. You can call me Kurama like the rest of my… well Yusuke and Keiko anyway." Kurama started fanning himself because of the heat.

Hiei pretended to not hear this bit of information but merely nodded his head at a house. "We're here…"

Kurama lifted his eyes and took in the front view of Hiei's house. It was an older Japanese styled house. Weirdly enough, a cluster of bamboo blocked the house from view off of the street. Hiei led Kurama inside and a wave of cool air greeted them from multiple blowing fans. The short spiky haired boy kicked off his shoes at the doorway and Yukina greeted the duo.

"Hello Hiei and Kurama." She bowed politely.

"Aren't you supposed to be spending time with your partner?" Hiei scolded his younger twin sister.

"I explained things to mother and if the principle asks her about it then she'll lie and say we spent the needed time together." Yukina explained cheerfully.

The pyromaniac set his stuff down in the first room on the left, the redhead following suit, and a loud crash could be heard from the kitchen. "Mother?" Hiei proceeded to the kitchen with Yukina and Kurama tagging along behind him.

Hina had accidentally dropped a plate and was now picking up the mess. "Welcome home, Hiei." She bowed to Kurama. "Nice to meet you, young sir." Kurama couldn't help but notice that in her features she looked very strained and tired. "Hiei, would you please water the plants out back before you get caught up in something?"

"If we water the plants out back anymore, they'll be as tall as the bamboo out front." Hiei folded his arms behind his head.

"Please son, it would be a great help to me." Hiei nodded at his exhausted mother and headed out back. Yukina stayed to help Hina and Kurama decided to follow Hiei. The quiet boy was using a water hose to water the plants, letting the silence between them drag out. Sooner than later, Yukina also came outside.

"Yukina, you should water the plants some too." Hiei said coldly.

"Right…" Yukina watched Hiei as he walked over to stand a few feet from Kurama. While Hiei wasn't looking, his younger twin sister twisted the hose until the water stopped flowing and aimed the hose at Hiei, releasing the water again on him and Kurama.

"GAH! Damn it, Yukina!" Hiei growled.

Kurama wiped his bangs out of his eyes and looked down at his shirt. He was soaking wet and not too happy about it. But in order to dry faster, it would help if he weren't wearing his shirt. The redhead peeled off his shirt and wrung it out. Hiei glanced over at Kurama but quickly turned away. In his glimpse, Hiei saw that for someone who had such a feminine face, Kurama was quite muscular. His slightly tanned skin looked very smooth and-

_Shut up! Stop thinking about him! _Hiei shouted at himself, inwardly. _The project needs to end soon. The farther away from Kurama I get, the better. I can't afford to drop my guard at all otherwise I will only be hurt. I won't deny it but at the same time I won't allow myself to even develop a small crush…_

Hiei was clenching his teeth and fists but making sure no one else noticed.

Kurama put his shirt back on after it dried in the heat. His emerald green eyes slid to look in Hiei's direction. Hiei was glaring back at him with his crimson eyes. The redhead's gut told him something was up. Then again, Hiei probably hated Kurama's guts… but he just didn't quite know why.

**TO BE CONTINUED**

AHHHHHHHHHH!!! My writing has gone to hell and back… Ugh… I probably won't be updating much when school starts unless it's so boring that I just have to write fan fiction during class.


	6. Headaches and Explosions

I have two words for MoonSilverEyes: Bite… me…

Personally I rather enjoy K/H and even Y/H but if you don't like it or don't appreciate it, it's not like you're forced to read this fan fic.

Oh and guess what! I'm now a freshman in high school so I'll have a clue about what I'm writing about!!! And what's sad is that I'm pretty similar to Hiei… I'm about his height and I walk around carrying my lighter. Power to the pyromaniacs!!!

**Chapter Six: Headaches and Explosions**

Kurama was in a pretty good mood today! Why you ask? Um… because being the perfect student he is, he is absolutely thrilled at not being late for first hour! Mr. Hall was pacing in front of the class, reading aloud from his teacher textbook while each student took down notes. It felt as if a great weight had been lifted from the fox's shoulders. He no longer had to worry about dealing with Hiei and life would just be like it always was. But there was another reason to Kurama's happiness. Karasu was a no-show at school today, giving the redhead a break from his persistent stalking.

Before Kurama knew it, the second bell rang for Gym. He met up with Yusuke and together they went down a flight of stairs to the freezing gym. Normally a gym was supposed to be hot but because the schools only turn the air and heat on once a year (which is very stupid) it was very cold. Hiei was walking with Touya when he saw Kurama and his blood red eyes burned with anger.

"What's up Hiei?" Touya prodded the shorter boy.

"Nothing." Hiei replied curtly.

"Sure, sure, that's what you always say." Touya pointed out.

"And I _mean_ it!" Hiei growled.

The two of them walked casually into the boys' locker room, where a bunch of naked guys were changing into gym clothes so they wouldn't funk up their third hour class after being sweaty in gym. Pretending to not even notice Kurama's existence, Hiei changed into his gym uniform.

After running and playing some sports like basketball (much to Hiei's disappointment) for close to the whole class, the freshman was bent over with his hands on his knees, panting.

"I'm going to go ahead and change, Hiei." Touya strode off to the locker room quickly.

"Hey shorty! All the guys vote that you pick up the basketball equipment." A blonde sophomore snickered before turning with his groupies and cackling off into the locker room.

"Call me shorty, huh? I'll burn their sorry asses… They'll regret pushing me around…" Hiei grumbled all the while he was putting away the basketballs.

The bell rang for third hour and everyone filed out leaving Hiei alone in the gym. But before leaving, Kurama gave Hiei an unnoticed concerned look before leaving himself. Dragging his feet, Hiei entered the locker room and changed his clothes. Leaning over the locker room sink, Hiei washed his sweaty face and examined his reflection without interest.

**Why are you human?**

_What?_

An unbearable pain erupted in his temples and his eardrums started to ring. "Argh!" Holding his head in pain, the throbbing only got worse. He was getting disoriented and dizzy from the major headache he had gotten so suddenly. The next thing Hiei remembered, was hitting the hard locker room floor…

**Meanwhile in the science lab…**

"So I was talking to Kuwabara today. He's not such a bad guy but hey, he pissed me off so I kicked his ass…" Yusuke rambled on to Kurama.

"Yusuke put on your safety goggles." Kurama told the street punk while mixing some chemicals together.

Yusuke put on his safety goggles while continuing to ramble. "He never seems to get enough of a beating either. I've won more fights with him than there are students in this school."

"Yusuke add some salt and water to this mixture and please don't add too little." Kurama ordered.

"I'm thinking about skipping tomorrow because school is just so boring and people only piss me off here." Yusuke poured in some salt and water absentmindedly. "Oh hey I wonder what happens when I do this?"

"No Yusuke! Don't!" Kurama tried to stop him but too late…

All the way from Keiko's Study Hall classroom on the other side of the school from the science lab, there was a loud explosion sound and the ground beneath them vibrated.

Grinning even though he was covered from head to toe in soot, Yusuke laughed. "Well that was fun! Can we try that one again?"

"No Yusuke…" Kurama sighed and grabbed a fire extinguisher to put out the fire and the flaming teacher.

**On their way to lunch…**

"How was science with Yusuke?" Keiko asked smiling.

"Yusuke blew up the experiment." Kurama replied and he had cleaned himself up from the explosion as well.

"I didn't mean to, but it was so cool!" Yusuke grinned.

"You caught Ms. Murphy's hair on fire too." Kurama noted.

"Burnt experiment, burnt pretzels, burnt toast, burnt hotdogs… your specialty is burnt anything isn't it?!" Keiko snarled and Yusuke started backing away until he collided with someone.

"Hey watch where you're going." Yusuke complained.

A girl with long blue hair and pink eyes spun around quickly, smiling cheerfully. "So sorry, Yusuke! I'd stay and chat but there's something I have to do first!" The girl winked and ran off.

"Is there something I should _know_, Yusuke?" Keiko's voice was dripping with fury.

"It's not what it looks like Keiko! I honestly have no idea in hell who that was!!!" Yusuke tried to explain but Keiko just ignored him and stomped off.

"Shit… Damn it… I knew I shouldn't have come to school. This just pisses me off all the more." The sophomore thug gritted his teeth.

"Let's see then…" Kurama pulled out a lengthy list and started to read with Yusuke peering at him curiously. "This is a list of what pisses you off… School, Kuwabara, big shots, Kuwabara, the principle, Kuwabara, school-"

"Okay, okay, I get the point. You can stop now." Yusuke grumbled.

"Well, I'm starving how about you?" Kurama folded the list carefully and stuffed it back into his jean pocket.

"Yeah, whatever…"

They picked out a table and started eating sandwiches Kurama had gotten from Shiori. "Man, your mom is such a good cook!" Yusuke complimented.

"Mm hm." Kurama took a book out of his bag and started to read it while eating the delicious sandwich.

"So Kurama, why don't you have a girlfriend?" Yusuke watched his reaction curiously.

"I'm not interested, Yusuke." Kurama took another bite of his sandwich and continued reading his book.

"So Kurama, why don't you have a boyfriend?" Yusuke persisted.

"I'm _not_ interested, Yusuke." Kurama growled, a vein in his temple about to burst.

"Sorry buddy, but there ain't an '_other_' option here." Yusuke pointed out.

"YUSUKE!!!" Kurama slammed his book onto the table, thoroughly embarrassed. "I'm not interested in love, period. Got that?!"

"Lighten up, Kurama…" Yusuke sweat dropped.

Jin and Touya raced past the two of them in the direction of the gym.

"What's the hurry, Jin?" Yusuke asked.

"Ah Urameshi! So good to see you and all but we can't chat we have to get Hiei who passed out in the gym locker room. Hope he's okay this has never happened before but maybe you two should come with us anyway. Come on!" Jin started to slur his words together.

Yusuke looked at Kurama and pointed to Jin. "What he said…"

"Hiei passed out?!" This was alarming news to Kurama. Breaking into a run he raced to the gym to see if Hiei was all right.

**TO BE CONTINUED**

Wow… I've been getting some serious writer's block on this story. Some feedback might be helpful, so please review.


	7. Botan

**What2callmyself: **Yes, I actually have a plot going here!!! I feel so smart

**Kute Anime Kitty: **Yeah, that was an evil cliffy but I just have to throw one in there every once in a while.

**Raging Lion: **I'm glad you think my story kick-ass! Thanks for the review too Hiei is my favorite but Kurama is a really close second and Yusuke's a pretty close third.

**Chapter Seven: Botan**

* * *

**You aren't me…**

_What the hell are you talking about?!_

**Shut up, ningen!**

_Ningen…?_

"Hiei!"

**What?! **_What?_

"Hiei, wake up! _Please_!"

Groaning, Hiei opened his eyes and Kurama was leaning over him, looking relieved. Yusuke was also there along with Jin, Touya, and also the blue-haired girl with pink eyes.

**The kitsune and Yusuke are here …Botan, too? What the hell are Jin and Touya doing here?**

"Get out of my head!" Hiei snarled and shut his eyes, plugging up his ears.

"Hiei are you all right?! What's wrong?" Kurama demanded.

**Trust me, I _want_ to leave.**

"Hiei, drink this." The blue-haired girl handed Hiei a hot drink. The odor made him shrivel up his nose in disgust. It was also a weird green color, which didn't make it very appetizing.

**Don't drink it…**

Hiei pinched his nose and put the rim of the warm drink to his lips.

**Stop!**

Gulping down the bizarre drink, Hiei had to fight the urge to gag. It smelled, looked, and tasted horrible but stopped the throbbing in his head and there were no more outbursts from the voice in his mind.

"Feeling better?" The blue-haired girl giggled and smiled cheerfully.

"I guess…" The exhausted freshman sighed.

"Yay! Hiei's okay! Whoopee! We should skip the rest of school to celebrate!" Jin practically pounced on Hiei.

"I'm down with that, Jin, but…" Yusuke rounded on the mystery (not-so-mysterious) girl. "Who… the hell are you?"

She sweat dropped. "Oh, no one important! I'll just be on my way now." She made an attempt to escape but Yusuke grabbed her arm.

"You know our names even though we've never been introduced. My _girlfriend_ now thinks I'm two-timing her. I'd say I've got a _damn_ good reason to ask for your name." Yusuke lectured while making his grip tighter on her arm.

"All right! All right! My name is Botan." Botan answered and Yusuke released her arm, so she walked away mumbling, "Koenma's going to kill me…"

"Now that that's over with, let's skip school!" Yusuke grinned sneakily.

"Excuse me?!" Keiko demanded since she had been looking for Yusuke and just walked into the gym. (A/N: Hiei had been moved from the locker room to the gym )

"Bad timing…" Yusuke whimpered.

"I'll say." Keiko stuck her nose in the hair. "And what was that girl doing in here with you guys?" She demanded.

"Hiei fainted-" Yusuke started.

"I did not faint! I passed out! A _guy_ does not _faint_." Hiei argued obstinately.

"Whatever." Yusuke continued. "Hiei _passed out_ and that girl gave him a funny drink to make him feel better."

Kurama peered at Hiei earnestly. "You _are_ feeling better, right Hiei?" His emerald eyes were filled with such concern that Hiei turned away from the beautiful green eyes and blushed.

"Yeah, I'm fine." The embarrassed Hiei muttered.

Jin and Touya glanced at each other and snickered but shut up as soon as Hiei glared at them. Keiko also seemed to notice something while Yusuke didn't get anything and Kurama was being naïve.

A loud bell that echoed off the gym walls startled them all out of their thoughts. Keiko started heading out of the gym and Jin and Touya followed. "Come on guys, you don't want to be late for class."

Yusuke waited until he was sure Keiko was gone before glancing back at the other two guys. "Alright! Time to skip!"

**Outside of the school…**

"Huh? Urameshi? Are you skipping, too?" Kuwabara was standing in the school parking lot with his bag slung over his shoulder.

"Yeah, Kuwabara. What's it to ya?" Yusuke was wandering in and out of the different cars and he took out his house key to scrape the paint on a teacher's car that he didn't like.

"Where are you guys going?" Kuwabara asked.

"Wherever we want." Yusuke stopped at a nice looking blue painted motorcycle.

"Yusuke, I don't think this is the brightest of ideas." The redhead spoke up hesitantly.

"Neither was blowing up the science lab but I did that anyway." Yusuke grinned. "Care to go for a joy ride on my baby?" The greasy haired thug gave the motorcycle a nice pat on the seat.

"Do you even have a _license_ to be riding that thing?" Kurama questioned worriedly. His decision to skip with Yusuke was starting to not look like such a good idea. "You didn't steal it, did you…?"

"No worries, I didn't steal it and I know what I'm doing at least." But these words didn't comfort Kurama much. "How about we go to an ice cream parlor to eat?" Yusuke suggested.

"Sweet snow?!" Hiei exclaimed before slapping his mouth shut and pretending he didn't just yell that for everyone to hear. Kurama gave him a funny look and stifled a laugh.

"Yeah sure, hop on." Yusuke climbed onto his motorcycle and Kurama got on next, locking his arms around Yusuke's waist. Hiei was unsure about this and sat on the very end reluctantly.

"You might want to hold onto my waist, Hiei." Kurama warned while Yusuke started up the engine and the steady hum of the motorcycle vibrated in their seats.

"I refuse to wrap my arms around your waist." Hiei scoffed stubbornly.

"Well you don't have to but I suggest you do." Kurama advised.

"Enough chit chat and I only have one rule when riding my motorcycle… no backseat driving!!!" Yusuke revved up the engine and had to shout the last part to be heard over the engine's roar. "Make sure your tray tables are in the upright and locked position and hold on to your ass!" Yusuke cheered and the vehicle sped forward with a sudden lurch.

The abrupt movement forward made Hiei almost fall off and he had to flail his arms in order to stay on. Despite what Hiei said before he found himself clutching onto Kurama's shirt in order to stay on. Kurama didn't seem to mind so Hiei held on a little tighter for reassurance. Was it safe for three people to be riding a motorcycle, anyway?

"Wait up for me you guys!!!" Kuwabara shouted from behind, running to try and keep up with Yusuke's bike.

But Yusuke picked up speed and Kuwabara was left _way_ behind. Together the three of them headed off to the nearest ice cream parlor to skip school and eat sweet snow together!

**TO BE CONTINUED**

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I got a little bold font happy this chapter... I thought that was a pretty decent chapter myself but you can tell me what you thought in your review!


	8. Kurama's bad feeling, Karasu's revenge

**What2callmyself:** (hands you sweet snow) be a happy reader now with your sweet snow!

* * *

**Chapter Eight: Kurama's bad feeling, Karasu's revenge**

"Honestly Yusuke, you could have killed us." Kurama sighed.

"But the truth of the matter is, that we are all alive!" Yusuke pointed out while licking his soft serve ice cream cone. "I never would have thought a tough pyromaniac such as Hiei would be going nuts over some ice cream, though." The greasy haired punk laughed.

Kurama couldn't help but chuckle as well. Hiei was eating his ice cream, cone after cone after cone!

Yusuke and Hiei, both, looked very cute while eating their ice cream. A year or two ago, Kurama had even considered asking out Yusuke (whom he had been friends with since kindergarten) but was very disappointed when Keiko came into the picture. But thinking back now, Yusuke probably would have refused and then that would have ended their friendship right then and there.

"Finally! I… caught up… with you guys!" Kuwabara panted in the doorway of the ice cream parlor.

"Great Kuwabara…" Yusuke rolled his eyes sarcastically. "Ever thought of trying out for cross country running?"

"Oh shut it, Urameshi!" Kuwabara cracked his knuckles, threateningly.

A prick at the back of Kurama's neck made him turn his attention away from the argument and look out the window to see a figure fleeting into the shadows. Narrowing his eyes, he stared out the window until it didn't seem like whatever it was would move again. Praying he wasn't losing it, the redhead turned his attention back to Yusuke and Kuwabara.

"Don't tell me you haven't had enough beatings from me yet." Yusuke growled, ready to kick Kuwabara's ass at any moment.

"I don't know, I'm a slow learner so maybe you should run that by me again. But I'll warn you, this is the time when I'll be the one kicking your sorry tail!" Kuwabara boasted.

Dropping his ice cream, Yusuke charged at Kuwabara and the ass kicking ensued. Ah well… such is the life of the those two…

"How can he drop his sweet snow like that?!" Hiei demanded in utter shock.

Kurama stifled a laugh and merely shrugged. "I believe Yusuke just holds beating up Kuwabara in higher priority than eating his ice cream which he made _me_ pay for."

Hiei didn't respond to this, but it made him a little angry with Yusuke. Anyway, he finished his ice cream and returned to his normal self. "Those two have to be the biggest fools I've ever met. If they don't stop I'll beat both of their sorry butts."

This comment made the redhead think back to a rumor he had heard about Hiei. He was pretty similar to how Yusuke behaved at school. Sometimes he would skip class or school entirely and he was well known for being very strong. "So you beat up people like Yusuke does?"

"The only difference between him and I is that _I_ don't get caught." Hiei smirked at Kurama.

"Hey, I resent that!" Yusuke shouted to the two of them.

Kuwabara was the unlucky one in this fight (no surprise there) and was shriveled up on the ground, his joints bending at weird angles, and bruises appearing everywhere.

"Not a very appealing trait…" Kurama trailed off about how Hiei and Yusuke always beat up on others.

Hiei turned away, angrily. "Fools…" The spiky-haired freshman trekked out of the parlor while scoffing at the rest of them and then vanished from view.

"Hmm… Yusuke, what time is it?" Kurama gave Yusuke an uneasy look.

"About thirty minutes after school ends, why? Worried Keiko will find us and unleash her wrath?" Yusuke snickered.

"Not quite… I'm more worried about something happening to—wait a minute! Thirty minutes after school?! We've been out of school _that_ long?!" The redhead freaked out.

"Time flies when you're having fun, huh Kurama?" The black-haired thug elbowed Kurama playfully in the ribs.

"Yes, I guess…" Kurama stared down at his feet, deep in thought.

Someone stumbled into the ice cream parlor and belched loudly, the smell of strong liquor hanging around this man. "Well, I think I stumbled into the wrong place, mate."

"Chu, I _told_ you the bar was across the street!" A small kid whom Kurama recognized as Rinku was walking at Chu's heels.

"Ah well… this is one strange rug." Chu stumbled on Kuwabara drunkenly.

"That's because it's a person, Chu. Oh hey! It's the idiot, Kuwabara." Rinku laughed at the beaten and broken Kuwabara that Chu just stepped on.

"Kurama?" Yusuke snapped the redhead out of his train of thought.

"Sorry, what was that Yusuke?" Kurama jerked his head up to meet Yusuke's chocolate brown eyes.

"You okay, man?" He asked, worriedly.

"I'll be fine. Listen, I'm going to walk on home so Shiori doesn't worry about me. I will probably pick up something along the way as well." The emerald eyed teen waved goodbye and then left the store without another word.

"Something's got him worried. Maybe I should've offered him a ride home on my motorcycle?" Yusuke wondered before stepping on Kuwabara's head and leaving on his bike.

**Where Hiei is…**

Hiei kicked the ground in frustration.

"Why is that fool, Shuichi, always on my mind? Damn it!" He growled at himself. "As if he could ever love me in return!"

Once again, Kurama's figure reminisced in Hiei's mind, only pissing off the freshman all the more. Furious at himself, Hiei punched the rusting wall of an old abandoned warehouse. A loud cackle from above him made him pause and glance around for the source of the laughter.

"Who's there?!" Hiei demanded.

"Well, well, it seems I snuck up on you this time. In our last encounter it was _you_ who caught me off guard. I'm just here to return the favor." The wicked laughter grew louder from the shadows.

"Karasu…" Hiei breathed the foul name without a doubt about who it was.

"Aw… things not working out between you and our dear Shuichi? Figures, that someone as weak and emotionally insecure as you, wouldn't be able to move the dear fox's heart." Karasu sneered.

"Like you would have any more luck." Hiei retorted.

"Well that was cruel words. But eventually, Shuichi would see that I was best for him and not anyone else!" Karasu exclaimed, remaining well hidden within the shadows.

Scoffing, Hiei smirked confidently. "You're such a coward. Sneaking is about the only thing you can do. You snuck up on him after school that one day and now you have to sneak up on me. You're so weak, Karasu." Hiei took a step back to try and get a better view of where Karasu might be hidden inside the warehouse.

A thin but strong cord wrapped itself around Hiei's neck and pulled him a few inches off the ground. Hiei gritted his teeth and tried to pull on the cord around his neck but it was no use.

"Sneaking just seems to work for me, Hiei…" Karasu laughed.

**TO BE CONTINUED**

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Yep, another cliffy! What will happen next?! By the way, I'm disappointed that only one person reviewed last chapter. Oh well, I love you a bunch What2callmyself!!!


	9. Struggle at the Warehouse

**Jus Kita: **(does happy dance) Thanks for reviewing! And you can call me 'chan' instead of 'san' if you wish.

**What2callmyself:** (hands you more sweet snow) yes, you were the only one to review that time. Can you believe that? But the suspense won't last much longer… then again I might end it on a cliffy again (grins evilly).

**Rinkurocks:** I could try and have Rinku in more often if you like (grins). I like Rinku he's cute. But I wouldn't know when to have him come back again…

**Niana Kuonji: **I'm writing! I'm writing!

**Kute Anime Kitty:** Don't be mad (gives you sweet snow) be happy and enjoy the next chapter!

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**Chapter Nine: Struggle at the Warehouse**

"Why do I feel like something terrible will happen to Hiei if I don't hurry up?!" Kurama asked himself while he ran frantically in the direction his gut told him to.

**What is Hiei to you?**

_What kind of a question is that? And why is there another voice in my head?_

Kurama continued running, but there was no reply to his question. On the other hand, the question that was asked of Kurama got him thinking. What _is_ Hiei to him… a friend maybe? Something more?

They had been through a lot together and Kurama owed Hiei a lot from helping him when Karasu caught him off guard. But other than that, Hiei distanced himself from Kurama. Maybe Hiei hated him…?

Kurama hoped not…

An old abandoned warehouse loomed into view, making Kurama slow down. What caught his attention immediately was a crane hanging over the roof's edge. There was a cord tied like a noose dangling from the crane and Hiei's neck was in it. This sight nearly gave Kurama a heart attack until he noticed Hiei was alive and well but was only being kept from being hung by a wooden board beneath his feet supporting him and Karasu standing on the board to keep it up.

"Karasu let Hiei go!" Kurama ordered, walking closer to the warehouse.

"On one condition..." Karasu sneered.

"Name it." The redhead narrowed his emerald eyes at his worst enemy.

"You will belong to me and only me." Karasu laughed wickedly. "Fair enough right? Hiei's life for your freedom."

"I refuse to be your bribe, Karasu!" Hiei spat angrily, not caring that he could either be hung or dropped from three floors to the gravel covered ground below.

"Careful Hiei, make me too angry and I'll just stop applying my weight on this board and watch you strangle to death." A twisted smile crept onto Karasu's face.

"Don't do anything stupid, Hiei!" Kurama warned.

"Who do you think I am?! Kuwabara?!" Hiei demanded.

"Enough! What is your answer, Shuichi?" Karasu asked impatiently.

Kurama hesitated and for once he didn't know what to do!

But he would regret it forever if Hiei were killed…

"Fine…" Kurama muttered.

"NO!" exclaimed Hiei and in a desperate last move, he pulled out his lighter and started burning the cord that held him to the crane but Karasu kicked the board holding him up, knocking Hiei off balance, and the lighter fell out of his hands, disappearing on the ground below.

"Well that was a little stupid…" Kurama noted, hoping Karasu didn't decide to hang Hiei now.

"Hah! You're just jealous because he chose me over you!" Karasu taunted Hiei.

"Um… actually he only chose you to save my life." Hiei muttered so only Karasu could hear.

Growling, the raven-haired Karasu narrowed his eyes at Hiei and cackled. "You know what? I think I'll kill you anyway you-"

A sudden explosion from within the warehouse knocked both Karasu and Hiei off balance. The board slipped out from beneath Hiei's feet and the cord tightened around his throat. Below him, Kurama shouted desperately to Hiei. The lack of oxygen made the spiky-haired freshman light-headed but the cord snapped under his weight from where it had been partially burnt through earlier. Kurama ran towards Hiei to catch him and they both fell under Hiei's weight.

"What the hell happened with that explosion?!" Hiei demanded, blushing slightly, as he jumped out of Kurama's arms.

"My guess is that your lighter caught something on fire and triggered the explosion." Kurama explained, not noticing the red-cheeked Hiei.

Flames had erupted all around and within the old abandoned warehouse. Fire on the roof cornered Karasu and it didn't seem like the roof would hold his weight much longer.

"Jump Karasu! We'll catch you!" Kurama shouted up to the roof to be heard over the roar of the flames.

"Why the hell do you want to try and save him?" Hiei inquired in surprise.

"No matter how many sins he has committed, a life is a life!" The redhead replied.

"I refuse your offer, Shuichi. It's not like it would make a difference…" Karasu trailed off and before Kurama could reply another loud explosion erupted from the warehouse and the roof caved in, burning Karasu alive.

Kurama was a little stunned and couldn't move until Hiei nudged him.

"We better leave before the authorities come and decide to interrogate us." The black haired freshman pointed out.

"Right…" The redhead nodded and followed Hiei away from the warehouse.

Silently, the two of them walked to Hiei's house. Kurama now refused to leave Hiei alone until he got home safely and Hiei was rather uncomfortable with that idea. When Hiei walked up to the door to his house through the tall ferns in his front yard he turned to look back at Kurama, whom was waiting patiently for him to enter his house.

"Kurama… there's something I have to tell you…" Hiei started but lost his nerve.

Surprised, Kurama peered at Hiei curiously. "Yes?"

Sighing deeply, Hiei summoned up his nerve once more. "I love you…" And then briskly turned on his heel and entered his house, leaving behind a flabbergasted Kurama.

**TO BE CONTINUED**

* * *

Aw… how sweet! Hiei confessed his love but now what will Kurama do about it? Hm… I must ponder this…

Sorry if the scenes at the warehouse were confusing but I couldn't find a very effective way of wording it all…


	10. Invite

**What2callmyself:** I felt kind of bad about what happened to Karasu because of the way he hopelessly loved Kurama and all. He was also a fun character to have around to nag Kurama. It's funny though, Kurama is my second favorite character and I just love hurting him. I even killed him in one of my other stories (glances around) poor Hiei…

**Moonlit-kitsune:** Yeah, I think Karasu is dead and sorry for the confusion. Although now that I think about it, it would be interesting to see him come back… So anyway, he might or he might not return.

**Kute Anime Kitty:** I have a new addiction to cliff endings (grins).

**Niana Kuonji:** I like cliffy endings! Well… at least when I'm _writing_ them!

* * *

**Chapter Ten: Invite**

Kurama watched Hiei enter his house, completely dumbfounded. Was _that_ what this whole thing was about?!

Now that he thought about it, things were starting to make more sense…

Hiei distanced himself because he was ashamed of how he felt, not because he hated Kurama. And Karasu kidnapped Hiei because he felt Hiei was a threat to his ultimate goal, not because he was well… Karasu.

**So what will you do now…?** The voice in Kurama's head asked hesitantly.

"I need some sleep…" Kurama replied with a tired sigh but if the voice in his head had been standing before Kurama they would have definitely fallen over, anime style.

**At school the next day (it's Thursday, by the way)…**

"Well isn't this strange? Kurama's super late for once." Yusuke noted to himself and kicked a rock on the ground outside.

"He's been acting unusual, lately." Keiko added. "I wonder if something's up."

"Now that you mention it, he has been pretty strange lately. Yesterday he just ran off without finishing his ice cream, what a waste…" Yusuke glanced around to see if anyone was coming their way.

"Did you hear about what happened to Karasu?" Keiko asked innocently. "Last night on the news, it said he burned to death in a warehouse. The flames were so hot that they couldn't even find what might be his body."

"Karasu? Why's that name familiar…?" After a quick glare from Keiko, Yusuke remembered who he was really quickly. "Oh yeah, the stalker dude who never left Kurama alone. Hey, that should make Kurama happy!"

"Maybe…" The brunette girl looked down at the ground, unconvinced.

Kurama came running up the sidewalk, out of breath and very tired.

"Wow, Kurama that must be a new record from the school gates to the front of the building." Yusuke grinned.

"Perhaps…" The redhead panted. "Have you seen Hiei this morning?"

"Can't say I have. The only other person I've seen this morning was Kuwabara and I pounded his face in again."

"Why do you ask?" Keiko looked Kurama up and down curiously.

"No reason." Kurama answered a little too quickly.

From within the school, the three of them could hear the bell ring for class change.

"Ack! What period is it?!" Kurama demanded, because he had accidentally slept in for a while.

"It's now second period… oh!" Keiko rounded on Yusuke. "I got so distracted by our conversation I forgot to tell you that you better get back to class otherwise the vice principle will give you Saturday detentions."

"Man… why do they always send you to track me down when I'm skipping anyway?" Yusuke grumbled and started trekking back into the school.

"They know it takes a sharp tongue like Keiko's to make you act right." Kurama supplied and then went silent when Keiko gave him a warning look.

Keiko made sure the two of them went straight to their second period class before she went to Study Hall. Kurama didn't talk at all and Yusuke didn't really notice because he's a little thickheaded sometimes. But while they were changing into their gym clothes, Kurama noticed Hiei wasn't here either. Wondering if anything was wrong with him, Kurama confronted Touya about it.

"Hey Touya, have you seen Hiei today?" Kurama asked, acting as casual as he could.

"Nope." Touya answered flatly and then looked at Kurama with a mischievous expression. "Why do you ask? Concerned about the little Hiei?"

"No, just wondering." Kurama sweat dropped and Touya's grin got bigger.

"Want me to track him down for you? He might like to hear that he is missed when he's not at school."

"That's not necessary." Kurama reassured and walked away before Touya could ask him any more questions.

It was kind of weird that Mr. Toguro wasn't here today for class. In the few days Kurama had him as a teacher he came across as someone very prompt and would never miss work.

"Well now what?" Yusuke asked no one in particular. "I say we skip class."

"Just what I need… a slacker who skips my class." A raspy voice belonging to an elderly woman caught everyone's attention and she made herself known by coming out of the small office next to the different locker rooms. She was even shorter than Hiei, with graying hair, and stern brown eyes.

Yusuke laughed. "I'm sorry grandma, you have a problem with me skipping?"

"Yes I do. In fact, could you come over here for a minute, there's something I need to tell you." She gestured for him to come and stand next to her.

"Sure, whatever." Yusuke grinned and bent down so he could hear her better.

She pinched a pressure point in the area where Yusuke's neck was attached to his shoulders and this made Yusuke's body go entirely limp and he collapsed onto the floor. "Don't skip my class, you slacker. In here you're going to work your lazy ass off and you are to refer to me as Genkai and not grandma. Do you hear me loud and clear?" Genkai demanded.

"Yes, ma'am." Yusuke whimpered from the floor. "And what the hell was that?! The Vulcan neck pinch?!"

"Yes it was, I enjoy watching Star Trek along with my soaps during the day." Genkai sneered.

Kurama chuckled under his breath. It was a rare sight to see Yusuke in such a situation unless it was Keiko ordering him around.

But Genkai wasn't kidding when she told them she would work their lazy ass off! Everyone had to do twenty full laps around the gymnasium and then over a hundred push-ups and sit-ups each. She barely even cut the girls in the class some slack. But she was the first teacher Kurama knew to be able to keep Yusuke in line.

Everyone was so relieved when the bell rang for the next class that they all staggered out of the gym on their numb legs. Kurama dragged his tired feet to Drama while Yusuke went to Social Studies and they planned on meeting up to go to Science class afterwards. All in all, it was a pretty normal day. Like how things had been before Kurama met Hiei or before Karasu started stalking him…

"Hey, that Karasu guy died last night." Yusuke mentioned during science.

"You don't say. Yusuke, watch how much you put into the mixture." Kurama warned Yusuke.

"So I was thinking, since that dude bothered you so much maybe we should throw a party for his death at my apartment this afternoon. We can invite Kuwabara, Jin, Touya, and maybe even Hiei too. Wouldn't want Keiko to come though, for one thing I was thinking about having some beer at the party." Yusuke rambled while carelessly adding the chemicals for the experiment.

"Sounds fun. Yusuke, you don't want to add anymore of that." Kurama advised.

"What was that, Kurama? Oh hey, I wonder what happens when I do this?" Yusuke wondered aloud.

"No! Yusuke don't!" Kurama tried to stop him.

**BOOM!**

"Yusuke Urameshi!" The Science teacher screeched. "You are banned from doing experiments in here!!!"

"Sweet. Does that mean I can just skip class?" A charcoal black Yusuke asked with a big grin.

"No! You have to do a report on each experiment and it's due before you leave class!" The teacher ranted while putting out the remaining fires.

"Aw damn…" Yusuke groaned and then whispered to Kurama. "I have a feeling I'm going to be spending the rest of the day in detention so why don't you round up anybody who wants to come to the party and head over to my house after school."

"Okay." Kurama nodded.

**TO BE CONTINUED**

* * *

Sorry if the chapter was lame, it was kind of like just an interval from one thing to the next but anyway. Hope you enjoyed it and review on your way out!

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	11. You're barking up the wrong tree

**What2callmyself: **I haven't made up my mind whether Karasu should return or not but as for where Hiei is… he DIED!!! No, I'm kidding, Hiei's fine.

**Kute Anime Kitty:** I always love how Yusuke keeps blowing up the science lab. I'm surprised he hasn't blown up the school at this point by accident! Poor Kurama for always having him as a partner though…

**Raging Lion:** You see, as for the school thing I have that too but I just zone out during class and work on my stories then! Hm, I wonder why my grades are bad though…? There must be some mistake!

**Niana Kuonji: **I thought it would be a nice twist to have Genkai as the gym teacher instead of Toguro but that was funny with the marshmallow!

* * *

**Chapter Eleven: You're barking up the wrong tree**

After school, Kurama found himself standing outside in the school courtyard looking for people he knew to invite to Yusuke's party. He had already run into Kuwabara who was more than willing to go but there was still one other person Kurama had in mind to invite…

"Hey Hiei!" Touya's cool voice jarred Kurama out of his reverie.

Searching for Touya, Kurama found him standing at the foot of a tall tree in the courtyard. Jin and him were gazing up into the tree, calling Hiei's name. Curiously, the redhead couldn't help but inch closer to eavesdrop.

"Hiei!" Touya snapped. "Stop pretending to be asleep up there!"

"It'd be best to be doing what Touya tells ya before he gets really mad and knocks the whole damn tree down! Imagine trying to explain _that_ one to the teachers." Jin folded his arms behind his head.

"Shuuichi was looking for you today." Touya added slyly.

"Is that so?" Hiei questioned while sounding very bored.

"I never thought I'd say this Hiei but you're acting like a coward, avoiding Shuuichi like this." Jin pointed out. "After all, he went into a mad fit while trying to find ya!"

"Actually Jin, you're over exaggerating, my friend." Touya reasoned.

"So? Why should this matter to me?" Hiei scoffed from one of the higher branches in the tree.

When Jin heard this, he practically exploded. "Damn your pride, Hiei! I swear sometimes you're so-"

"Excuse me." Kurama piped up from behind.

"GYAH!!!" Touya and Jin jumped back from Kurama in surprise.

"Sorry to startle you." Kurama apologized. "But there will be a party at Yusuke's apartment as soon as he gets out of detention this afternoon and you're invited."

"Oh! Oh! Oh! A party! We should go, Touya!" An ecstatic Jin bounced up and down.

"Sounds like fun." Touya mused. "You should come too, Hiei."

"Hah, I've got better ways to waste my time." Hiei sneered and leaped from the tree. "I'll have to decline the offer." He muttered and started to walk away at a fast pace.

"Hiei, wait!" The redhead hurried after the smaller boy.

They were just out of earshot of Touya and Jin before Kurama caught up to him and grabbed Hiei's arm.

"Wait, Hiei. We need to talk."

"Just what do we need to discuss, _Shuuichi_?" Hiei demanded through gritted teeth, making Kurama wince.

"Listen," Kurama began slowly. "I had a lot to think about last night and I came to the conclusion…"

Hiei averted his blood red eyes from Kurama's emerald green ones, expecting the worst.

"I've come to care about you a great deal." Kurama admitted. "More so than as 'just a friend'…"

The smaller boy's crimson eyes widened in shock and hesitantly, Hiei looked up into Kurama's smiling and reassuring face.

"The day I was over at your house you told me you weren't gay." Hiei pointed out, skeptically.

It was now Kurama's turn to avert his gaze. "I lied…"

From the tree in the courtyard, Touya and Jin watched their friend talk with Kurama.

"Perfect match if I ever saw one." Jin grinned.

Touya laughed and leaned against the trunk of the tree. "I agree…"

The two of them watched with interest as Kurama leaned down and briefly kissed Hiei. As a joke, Touya covered Jin's eyes, muttering, "This isn't for your virgin eyes to see."

"That's not funny, Touya. And you know damn well I'm not a virgin." Jin grumbled. "Now let me see! I wanna watch!"

Jin threw Touya's hands off of his eyes just as Kurama and Hiei were approaching. Glancing at each other, Touya and Jin both got the same idea and Jin exclaimed, "Oh Touya! I love you so much!"

"You're my everything, Jin!" Touya exclaimed back and they jumped into each other's arms and started pretending that they were making out.

"Cut it out or I will seriously cut off your heads!" Hiei shouted.

"Hey guys!" Yusuke waved and strode over. "Let's head on over to my apartment and get cocked!" He came to a dead stop. "What are Touya and Jin doing…?"

"Acting like fools… let's go." Hiei muttered.

"Whatever you say, Hiei." Yusuke shrugged and they all walked over to Yusuke's apartment talking casually.

Kuwabara was standing at the door on the second floor, waiting to be let in and Hiei wished the stupid oaf would _accidentally_ fall off the balcony or something.

"The door's unlocked so you can let yourself in unless you plan on standing there like a dumb ass all evening!" Yusuke taunted Kuwabara.

"Shaddap, Urameshi!" Kuwabara barked. "It's not good manners to just walk into someone's house without permission anyway."

"Are you sure this is okay, Yusuke?" Kurama asked hesitantly. "Do you think Atsuko will mind?"

"Aw, c'mon. She's a friggin' lush so she's probably drinking to her heart's content in a bar somewhere." Yusuke led them all inside. "All right! Let's get this party started!"

**TO BE CONTINUED**

* * *

Gack! Gomen nasai! I still haven't gotten to the party thing at all yet! But I do have a little secret to tell you all. Someone Kurama knows will be showing up and making things harder on our little couple.


	12. Party at Yusuke's!

Oh by the way, for this chapter there's going to be a lot of singing in _italics_ just so you know (in case you wanna skip over it or something).

**Niana Kuonji:** I am _so_ tempted to write a chapter that's all about an average day in Jin's life!!!

**Moonlight-kitsune:** My lips are sealed on who it is but I thought having Genkai in the story would be better than Toguro so I must find a suitable fate for him…

**What2callmyself:** I'm surprised Yusuke hasn't blown up the school by now oh wait… maybe he will in a later chapter (cackles evilly).

**Raging Lion:** Here's your next serving of Fiery Roses!

* * *

**Chapter Twelve: Party at Yusuke's!**

Yusuke rummaged through his refrigerator briefly before pulling out three packs of canned beer and some sake. Opening a can and chugging about half of it, Yusuke grinned, "To Karasu's o so painful death!"

Kuwabara paled. "We don't actually have to drink that stuff do we?"

"Well, since you don't have the balls to, there's also soda but you can get it yourself." Yusuke mocked. "Oh yeah, there's a karaoke machine here too. Who would want to sing first?"

"I will!" Touya answer enthusiastically.

"I wanna go after Touya!" Jin declared.

While the two of them got the karaoke machine ready, Yusuke was getting drinks for everyone. "Hey, Kurama, want a beer?"

"No thank you, Yusuke. I'd prefer some diet soda if you have it." Kurama replied, half watching Touya and Jin arguing about how to hook the machine up.

"Yuck. You like drinking that nasty shit?" Yusuke shuddered but handed Kurama a diet coke anyway. "What'll you have, Hiei?"

"Feh, sake." Hiei muttered.

"Just don't set it on fire." Yusuke warned because he of all people should know just how flammable something could be, even though sake isn't all that flammable.

"Yeah, right…" Hiei grumbled because he knew that trying to burn sake was a waste of time.

"You know Hiei, if you drink too much of that it'll damage your liver." Kurama cautioned with concern.

Hiei just shrugged and sipped on his drink as Touya and Jin started beating each other with the microphones.

"Hey, watch it! Those suckers cost a lot, you know!" Yusuke yelled.

"Sorry, Yusuke." Touya apologized and kicked Jin in the face so he could sing.

"Those two crack me up." Yusuke admitted, shaking his head and plopping down on the couch next to Kurama and Hiei.

_Yami kara yami e oto mo naku hashirinukeru _

_Hikari wo motome Hitasura ni tsuzukeru tabi_

Kurama set his diet coke onto the coffee table in front of him and Hiei took another sip of his sake before doing the same. "Is this all we're going to be doing?" Hiei grumbled at Yusuke.

_Yami yori mo fukai yami de kogoete ru mune ga _

_Nukumori wo kanjiru no wa itsu ka _

"We can always play truth or dare again." Yusuke grinned, deviously.

"NO!" Hiei snarled.

_Kagayaki wo suru shunkan ni nigete yuku kasuka na hikari _

_Tsukamaero! Chansu_-

Jin unplugging the karaoke machine cut off Touya's singing. "Hey! I was singing here!" Touya growled.

"Yes, and you're singing is better than most bird's in spring but it's my turn now!" Jin hopped up and down and grabbed the microphone from Touya's hands.

By this point, Hiei was getting pretty bored… and Kurama was noticing this. "Really Yusuke, is there anything else to do besides watching Jin and Touya kill each other?" Kurama wondered to his long time best friend.

_Hey, hey, fly away with the whirlwind _

_If you get blown away, how now _

_To find your dream you got to go farther_

Yusuke thought long and hard, which says a lot for him. "I know!" The teen punched his fist into his other palm. "We can do prank calls!"

Kurama sweat dropped. "That's not exactly what I had in mind…"

"Sounds interesting." Hiei mused.

In the background, Jin was getting random objects thrown at him by Touya while Kuwabara zoned out because he's just stupid.

"Great!" Yusuke sprang to his feet and ran to get the phone. "Who wants to go first?"

"I will." Hiei yanked the phone out of Yusuke's grip and dialed some random number.

"Thank you for making a collect call to America." A woman on the other line said pleasantly.

"Uh…" Hiei glanced around nervously because he didn't mean to do that. When the person answered Hiei just shrugged and went with it. After all, it wasn't like _he_ would be paying for it. "Uh, yeah, is your-"

"Hiei, my love!!!" The girl on the other side exclaimed.

"Gack!" Hiei hung up as quickly as he could.

"What's wrong, Hiei?" Kurama asked.

"Rabid fan girl!" The spiky-haired freshman shuddered at the thought.

"Let me show you how it's done." Yusuke retrieved the phone and called Pizza Hut. "Yeah, I'd like twenty extra large pizzas with anchoovees, no what. An-chow-vies... all hell! You know what I mean! Make it a delivery to 1452 Up Yours lane." Yusuke snickered and hung up.

Kurama sighed, despairingly. "Really Yusuke, if you're going to do something at least do it with some style." The redhead took the phone next and dialed an unknown number. "Yes this is the United States Secret Service, would you like to buy a state secret? Really? That'll be 40,000,000,000 dollars. Thank you for buying." Kurama hung up with a superior smile on his face.

"That was… stupid…" Yusuke sighed.

Shaking his head, Kurama turned to look at Hiei. "I'd be honored if you sang a duet with me."

Hiei blushed and nodded sheepishly. The two of them kicked Jin off the karaoke machine and Kurama started the music to a somewhat fast-paced song. The redhead tapped his foot lightly to the beat and waited for Hiei to start singing first.

_"The wind races, a silent hurricane calling me. It's probably a sign, a signal of the decisive battle."_ Hiei sang quietly in his somewhat deep voice.

_"Yes, the day has come for the dream that's more important than my life, to be fulfilled."_ Kurama joined in with his slightly higher pitched voice.

And together they sang the chorus._ "With my heart like this, I'm just Fighting to dream! I won't let anyone get in my way. We can decide things like fate for ourselves. Like the wind, we're just Shooting to dream! Cutting off the pain of the past, we now decide the future with our own hands. Get chance!"_

Everyone couldn't help but stop whatever they were doing and listen to this song. Absolutely no one could deny that these two sounded so good together! But after jumping into the second verse and singing the chorus once more, sadly the song ended. But the ending was met by applause and Kuwabara's retarded-ness.

"Can I sing with you guys?!" Kuwabara asked, standing and grabbing a third microphone.

Hiei gritted his teeth. "Hell n-"

"Sure." Kurama smiled, interrupting Hiei.

"Great!" Kuwabara exclaimed and put on another song that was a little slower than the one Kurama and Hiei had just sang.

Kuwabara started them off and then Hiei sang his part but it was after the chorus when Kurama got his own little bit. The song continued like this until the music suddenly quieted.

_"What kinds of words sit Eye to Eye?"_ Kurama sang.

_"I can't get you!"_ Hiei supplied.

_"You can't get me!"_ Kurama finished with a wide smile on his face.

Suddenly there was a loud crack of thunder outside, which accidentally shut off the karaoke machine. Jin squeaked and everyone jerked their heads outside to see it suddenly start pouring.

"That's not natural…" Yusuke pointed out. "And just great! It fried my karaoke machine!!!"

Sure enough, the karaoke machine was now smoking from the inside.

"It was Kuwabara's singing I tell you…" Hiei pointed at the big oaf standing next to him.

"Shut up! It was not my fault!!!" Kuwabara retorted.

Getting a headache from all the noise, both inside and out, Kurama sat down on the couch and took a large swig from what he _thought_ was his diet coke.

"Well what should we do for fun now?" Touya asked.

"Male bonding!" Kuwabara exclaimed and everyone gave him a disturbed look.

Yusuke shrugged and asked randomly, "So Kurama, what do you love best in this stupid world of ours?"

"I LOVE FLOWERS!!!" Kurama hiccupped.

Hiei, who was sitting right next to him, figured out Kurama had accidentally grabbed his sake instead of the diet coke. _Oops… _Hiei thought inwardly. "You mean you don't love…" The red-eyed boy glanced around before whispering into Kurama's ear. "Me?"

"No! I love _flowers_!" Kurama swayed tipsily.

"Great… Kurama's drunk…" Yusuke sighed.

"YUSUKE URAMESHI!!!" Someone pounded on the door.

"Uh oh…" Yusuke squeaked.

**TO BE CONTINUED**

* * *

For those of you who didn't recognize the Japanese Yu Yu Hakusho songs (you suck! Just kidding!) Touya was singing, "Gleam", Jin sang, "Fly away with the whirlwind", Kurama and Hiei sang "Wild Wind", Kuwabara and Kurama and Hiei sang "Eye to Eye". Don't ask me what Touya's song meant because I don't have the English translation for his! I hope I didn't get a little carried away with the songs.


	13. Busted

**Niana Kuonji:** (snickers) I absolutely love the idea of a drunken Kurama!

**Black Heart Dragon 17:** Thanks.

**…:** Such a creative name and wonderful review… By the way that was being sarcastic…

**What2callmyself: **I have all the songs that I had in the chapter! I love them, especially Hiei and Kurama's duet!

**Kute Anime Kitty:** I think it would make more sense for it to be Keiko rather than Atsuko, but I never thought of that… proves how predictable I am! (sweat drops)

**Sackachih:** Jin is hot but I like Hiei or Kurama better.

**Moonlit-kitsune:** Even though this is yaoi and it actually focuses mainly on the yaoi relationship nothing gets too dirty (unless you count my perverted humor every once in a while) and if it does, there will be a big warning!

* * *

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**Chapter Thirteen: Busted**

"YUSUKE URAMESHI!!!" Keiko bellowed outside the apartment door. "LET ME IN!!! I'M GETTING SOAKED!"

Everyone froze and turned to look at Yusuke in a tense silence.

"No one's home!" Yusuke shouted back, hoping against hope that she would believe him.

"I'm not stupid, Yusuke! Now let me in!" Yusuke's girlfriend pounded on the door some more.

Holding a finger to his lips, Yusuke quickly hid the beers and other drinks in the refrigerator and whispered so Keiko wouldn't hear them over the pouring rain outside. "Touya and Jin, go to my bedroom; it's down the hall on the right. Kuwabara, you can hide in the bathroom. Hiei and Kurama, hide in the closet."

"Okay!" Kurama exclaimed drunkenly.

"What did you say, Yusuke?!" Keiko shouted through the door.

"N-nothing!" Yusuke replied hastily.

"Well hurry up!" His girlfriend ordered.

"Yes ma'am!"

Hiei slapped his forehead and pulled Kurama into the nearest closet, which was pretty small I might add. Everyone else hurried to their hiding spots while Kurama and Hiei squeezed into the closet. "You have to be quiet, Kurama." Hiei whispered.

"But I am being quiet!" Kurama giggled in a not-so-quiet manner.

Hiei could hear Yusuke let Keiko in and prayed Kurama would stay quiet. In the tight space of the closet, he could feel the redhead readjusting his position despite the fact that it was too dark to see. A weight on his shoulder told Hiei that Kurama had laid his head on Hiei's shoulder.

"Kurama, what are you doing?" Hiei whispered.

"You called me Kurama." The redhead mumbled affectionately for being called by his nickname.

"What of it?" Hiei grumbled.

"Hey, Keiko!" Yusuke exclaimed in a way-too-friendly voice.

"Yusuke Urameshi! You completely forgot our date!" Keiko shouted in frustration.

"Oh did I? I'm sorry." Yusuke apologized hypocritically.

Quietly, Hiei listened to the conversation hoping Yusuke would get rid of Keiko quick because he _really_ didn't like small spaces!

Something wet trailed up Hiei's cheek, making him pull back in alarm and hit his head against the wall.

"What was that?" Keiko asked suspiciously. "And where's Atsuko?"

"That was the neighbor!" Yusuke responded quickly. "As for my mom, hell, I don't know."

"Kurama did you just _lick_ me?!" Hiei demanded quietly.

"You're tasty…" Kurama remarked.

"Stop fooling around! This isn't a good time or place." Hiei explained even thought he liked being with Kurama, even if it was in a closet.

"Should I get _serious_ then?" Kurama asked slyly, leaning more against Hiei.

"Just sit still and be quiet!" Hiei hissed.

"There's something funny going on here…" Keiko mused. She was probably noticing how unnaturally clean the living room was from where Yusuke had thrown most of the stuff into the refrigerator.

There was a loud flush from the bathroom and Hiei heard Yusuke mutter, "Damn you, Kuwabara…"

"And _what_ was that exactly?" Keiko questioned Yusuke suspiciously.

"The damn radiators!" Yusuke kicked a nearby radiator to prove his point.

Kurama wrapped his arms around Hiei's waist and snuggled into Hiei's chest. "I LOVE YOU!!!"

Hiei slapped his hand over Kurama's mouth and froze, begging Kami-sama that Keiko wouldn't open the closet door.

Outside the closet it was all too quiet until Keiko walked over, and wouldn't you know it… she opened the closet.

"Hiei? Kurama?" The brunette backed away from the door, eyes wide.

"He's drunk okay!!!" Hiei exclaimed.

"No I'm not…" Kurama hiccupped.

"That still doesn't explain why you're in a closet…" Keiko abruptly turned towards Yusuke. "You got _Kurama_ drunk?!"

"Keiko, I can explain! You see uh…" Yusuke started when someone else's voice interrupted him from the bedroom.

"Touya, what's this?" Jin asked, making something crash to the floor.

"Shut up, Jin!" Touya ordered.

"That's not very nice, koibito…" Jin whimpered.

"Touya and Jin are here too?" Keiko demanded, growing angrier by the second.

"I love flowers…" Kurama put in randomly.

From the bathroom, it sounded as if multiple buttons were being pushed at once. "Wow Urameshi, you have a heated toilet seat!"

"Kuwabara, too, huh?!" Keiko's eyes started turning red as if she was fighting back her tears.

Now of course, because Yusuke doesn't understand females and their hormones or delicate feelings, he just lamely answered, "Uh, yeah, we were having a party and we were hoping you wouldn't come…"

That was the last straw; Keiko's tears flowed freely down her cheeks. "So when were you going to include me into your plans, Yusuke?!" Angrily, Keiko stormed off and everybody else stuck their heads out of their hiding spots.

"What's got her so upset?" Everyone asked in unison.

Yusuke sighed despairingly. "Just go home now…"

Feeling guilty for not being quiet when they should have been, everyone trudged out of Yusuke's apartment and back home silently. Hiei of course had to walk Kurama home for the poor redhead couldn't even walk in a straight line, but man would he regret accidentally drinking Hiei's sake tomorrow…

**TO BE CONTINUED**

* * *

Guess what! I have at least three other Yu Yu Hakusho ideas for stories besides this one. I will probably start posting one of them while I'm also finishing up this one but after I finish my other non-YYH and non-FB stories. I don't know which one I should do first…

My latest idea is of when Kurama is in his last year of high school and he's about to leave the Ningenkai for good when he stumbles across another fox demon named Nejeuu! I'm not really sure what I should do for this fic but I think it has potential.

Then there is the story "On a Demon's day off" which is mostly just my stupid humor when I get bored but I find it funny!

Thirdly there's "The Legend of Yu Yu Hakusho: The Ocarina of Time" which is a comedy where the Game Master loses control over his powers and sends the tantei into the lovely Zelda videogame and Hiei is Link!!!

Plus on top of all this, I'm planning on trying to continue "A New Dark Tournament" but I seriously have writer's block on that one…


	14. A Raging Fire

**Niana Kuonji:** Yeah, Kurama's not going to be too happy in this chapter.

**Snowbrat:** Hiei as Link is quite a funny though (sweat drops) so who can guess who Zelda is?

**…:** I can understand it since you were up in the wee hours of the morning. But if you stop reviewing or even reading, that's your choice and I have no right to stop you.

**Kute Anime Kitty:** I think Yusuke will make it up to her somehow!

**Hieisbestbuddy888:** I'm happy you read my story (wether you liked it or not!) And I'd be honored if you continued reading this story.

**moonlit-kitsune:** Yes well, there's kind of a reason Kurama isn't Link (coughcough)

* * *

**Chapter Fourteen: A Raging Fire**

_"Yusuke!" Keiko sobbed on Yusuke's beside. "Wake up, Yusuke! Please!"_

_Botan put a gentle hand on Keiko's shoulder, trying to comfort her. "Keiko, I'm sure he'll wake up. Along with Hiei, Kurama, and Kuwabara." The normally cheerful girl said soothingly while three more beds sat in a row next to Yusuke's, where each of his three friends lay._

_Keiko refused to hear Botan and sobbed all the more onto Yusuke's bed sheets. Meanwhile, Yukina and Shizuru entered the room and while Shizuru tried to comfort Keiko, Yukina sat down beside Kuwabara._

_"Poor Kazuma…" The ice maiden sniffled, making her tear gems fall quietly onto the bed. "Please get well…"_

_"I can't keep going through this, Yusuke…" Keiko mumbled, looking up at the pale form of Yusuke. "If you don't pull through this then… there's no point in me going on…"_

"KEIKO!!!" Yusuke screamed, sitting up in his bed, and panting for breath.

Trying to calm himself down, Yusuke glanced around his dark bedroom. There were no other beds with his friends on it and no sign of Keiko, Yukina, Shizuru, or Botan.

"Then it… was just a nightmare?" Yusuke asked himself, wiping the cold sweat off of his forehead. "Man… I hope so!"

**………………**

"Ugh…" Kurama groaned during first hour.

His head was absolutely killing him! This morning when he woke up he didn't know how he got to his room, he didn't know why he had such a bad headache, and when Hiei and Kurama walked to school Hiei would not tell him what happened. It was probably nothing very good though…

When the second bell rang, Kurama winced and carried his things out of the classroom, only to bump right into the evil principle… Ms. Goodwin!

"Shuuichi Minamino, you're report please!" Ms. Goodwin extended her hand, expecting to be given something.

"What…?" Kurama asked, confused by the question.

"You're peer report that I assigned back in chapter two!" Ms. Goodwin barked.

"Oh…" The redhead started digging through his papers and pulled out what he was looking for. "Here you go, ma'am."

Quickly, Ms. Goodwin glanced through the report and snarled at Kurama, "This is terrible! You get a zero for this grade!"

Kurama's jaw dropped. "But it's five pages long!" He protested.

"It's late work!" She argued.

"No one told me where to turn it in at." The redhead admitted.

"And now you get detention for being fresh with me! I'll track you down later to assign your detention date!" Ms. Goodwin sneered and walked off.

The redhead watched after her angrily. Rarely would he take something personal, but her ass was pushing it!

The loud sound of the fire alarm made Kurama's head throb painfully as everyone around him immediately started evacuating out of the school building. Kurama was holding his head when a dazed Yusuke bumped into him.

"Huh? Oh hey, Kurama." Yusuke acknowledged his friend while still being in a daze for some reason.

"Hi Yusuke…" When Kurama saw the flames erupting from the school roof he gave Yusuke a suspicious look.

It took Yusuke a couple of seconds to figure out why Kurama was glaring at him. "I swear it wasn't me!" Yusuke protested.

"Where's Yukina?!" Hiei demanded from behind them, searching frantically for his sister.

"Yukina's not here?!" Kuwabara exclaimed randomly from nearby. "I've gotta go save her!"

"Only if you get there first!" Hiei spat and they raced off into the burning building to find Yukina.

"I hope they'll both be safe." Kurama sighed, knowing all too well that he wasn't in good enough shape to try and help. "Where's Keiko, Yusuke?"

Yusuke sighed and jerked his thumb over his shoulder. "She's over by Jin and Touya."

"Oh…" Kurama wondered what was wrong with Yusuke… he seemed way too out of it…

**………………**

"Wait! You shouldn't go back in there no matter what!" A teacher shouted at Hiei and Kuwabara while blocking the door to the school.

"Screw you! My sister's in there!" Hiei growled and shoved them out of the way.

"This is for true love!" Kuwabara exclaimed and kicked down the door.

A wave of hot air hit the two of them with such force they staggered backwards. Growling, Hiei dashed into the hallway, covering his mouth to keep himself from inhaling the smoke. Hiei couldn't remember which classroom Yukina was in for second hour, not that it made much of a difference because the hallways looked so unfamiliar and distorted now.

"Help!" Screamed a familiar voice from somewhere above Hiei.

"Damn it!" Hiei coughed.

The smoke was making his eyes burn until they watered and he couldn't see the nearest staircase through the dense smoke to save his life, much less Yukina's! Hell, he didn't even know if Kuwabara was fried yet or not. Scrambling through the thickening smoke, Hiei placed his hand on a heated wall and winced in pain from the heat of the flames on the other side of the wall. Ignoring the pain in his hand, Hiei kept close to the wall, using it as a guide through the smoke until he stumbled when the wall ended and his hand hit the stair rail.

"Help, please!" Someone cried out again.

"Hang on!" Hiei commanded, still holding his sleeve over his mouth and racing up the stairs.

The second floor hallways had even more smoke than the first, but much less fire to deal with. Unfortunately if Hiei didn't hurry up both Yukina and him would suffocate!

Following the wall down the hallway once more, Hiei walked past a room where someone was coughing inside. Hoping it was Yukina, Hiei kicked the door in and saw his younger twin sister surrounded by flames and coughing for clean air.

"Yukina!" Hiei burst through the flames and grabbed his sister. He wrapped her up in his jacket and felt her go limp in his arms. "Just hang on, Yukina!" Yukina's brother pleaded and leaped through the flames again, his bare arms getting scorched by the fire.

Finding his way back to the stairs, there was a loud creaking and groaning sound above Hiei and his sister. Just as Hiei pulled back from the stairs, the third floor collapsed into the second. Now he only had two ways left to go and both had flames coming up from the first floor. There was no other way out…

"Damn it…" Hiei groaned.

**………………**

"Kuwabara!" Yusuke greeted his crispy looking friend.

"Hey Urameshi…" Kuwabara grinned weakly with the body of a blonde haired boy in his arms.

"Where's Hiei?!" Kurama demanded.

"The smoke was too thick, I don't know where he went." Kuwabara explained, worried. "But he's a tough kid, he should be fine…"

"That's not very reassuring." Kurama pointed out and pushed his way through students to get to the school.

Glass was shattering on all the levels from the extreme heat of the fire and even though the firemen had finally arrived, they were having so much trouble trying to put out the fire. Another loud crash from the breaking glass was heard from overhead.

"Hey look!" Someone pointed up at a window, drawing the attention of others. "Someone just jumped out of that window!"

Kurama looked up hopefully and saw the black clad form of Hiei falling from the second floor with a body held in his arms tightly. The poor freshmen landed on his back several yards away from the school building and immediately a group of people rushed in to check on him. Desperately, Kurama shoved them all out of the way until he was by Hiei's side.

"Hiei!" Kurama's voice cracked at the sight of Hiei's charred skin and motionless form. Yukina, on the other hand, was coming around and lifted herself off of Hiei, crying. Because of Hiei's efforts, his sister was unharmed with not even a single burn on her soft skin. A medic kneeled down across from Kurama and took Hiei's pulse carefully.

"He's alive!" The medic shouted. "But barely!"

"Thank god…" Kurama whimpered, wiping away his tears.

"Hurry! We need to get him to the hospital! This kid has three degree burns on all of his bare skin!" The medic ordered.

With all the commotion around them, Kurama almost didn't notice Hiei open his eyes slightly.

"Hiei!" Kurama choked.

"Don't… leave me… Kurama…" Hiei requested.

"I won't." Kurama smiled.

**TO BE CONTINUED**

* * *

Wow… yet another chapter come and gone. I hope you all enjoyed it! I better go ahead and start the next chapter now.


	15. The Three

**Niana Kuonji:** I didn't actually notice how ironic that was until you pointed it out, but let me put it to you this way: if Hiei weren't a fire demon, he and Yukina would have died in that fire a lot sooner. As for Yusuke's dream, I can't say much about it without ruining the ending!

**Hieisbestbuddy888:** I think that my love triangle story might be next instead of another one I had in mind but I don't know, depends all on how many ideas I get for that one. Anyway, thanks for reviewing!!!

**…:** Whatever floats your boat.

**Julie Long:** Sorry if it was a little too lovey dovey (sweat drops) but it'll probably only get worse later on!

* * *

**Chapter Fifteen: The Three**

Yusuke watched from a distance as the medic's crew hauled Hiei up onto a stretcher and into the ambulance, with Kurama tagging along behind them.

"Uh…" Groaned the blonde haired boy in Kuwabara's arms.

"Hey, are you okay?" Kuwabara asked gently.

"Huh?" The boy blinked several times, not able to believe that he was alive. "Y-you saved me?"

"Yeah, I went back in looking for a friend and when I found you unconscious I couldn't just leave you." Kuwabara explained, setting the boy down on his own feet.

"Thank you so much!" The boy bowed deeply in thanks. "My name is Kiyoshi Mitarai. I am in your debt."

"Well Mitarai, I am the great Kazuma Kuwabara!" Kuwabara boasted like a fool.

"Just shut up, Kuwabara." Yusuke snapped impatiently.

"Geez, what's shoved up your ass, Urameshi?" Kuwabara asked.

"Nothing." Yusuke muttered.

Kuwabara was about to pursue the matter when three people came into view and stared up at the still flaming building, two of the three started laughing.

"You find the endangerment of others funny?" Yusuke demanded through clenched teeth.

In this group of three, there were two guys who looked like seniors and then a senior girl. One of the guys smirked superiorly at Yusuke and then ran a hand through his raven hair. "Why should you care?"

"Because one of my friends almost got fried in there." Yusuke growled.

"Too bad for them." Added the other guy who looked like either a 80s rock band reject or like he had been playing around with an electrical socket with his long and frizzy black hair.

"You two wanna start something?" Yusuke cracked his knuckles, looking for a way to vent his pent up stress.

"I don't usually start a fight with an infidel because I could easily shove your ass on a stick and roast you like a marsh mellow in that fire." The first one sneered.

"Yomi!" The girl snapped at the first one. "Raizen."

Yomi shut his eyes, as if holding back his temper and then turned to the girl. "What Mukuro?"

Her gaze flickered over to where the teachers were approaching the student body.

"Ah…" Yomi mused.

"I think it's time to skip." Raizen added and the three of them pushed their way through the crowd of students, vanishing from sight.

"Those punks!" Kuwabara growled. "I bet they started the fire!"

"Maybe…" Mitarai began thoughtfully.

"Mitarai!" A male voice called out and ran over to Mitarai's side.

"Oh, Hagiri." Mitarai smiled warmly, apparently befriended to this teenage boy with black hair very similar to Yusuke's. "Don't worry, I'm okay, Hagiri."

"Good." Hagiri smirked in relief and looked Mitarai up and down. "Are you sure? I panicked when I couldn't find you out here."

"Yeah, Mr. Kuwabara here saved me." Mitarai pointed to the stupid looking fool next to him and Hagiri gave Kuwabara a skeptical look.

"You going to introduce us, Mitarai?" Yusuke asked, a little too harshly because he was still pissed off at Yomi and Raizen.

"Oh sorry, this is my friend Kaname Hagiri (most people nickname him Sniper) and these are my new friends…" Mitarai gave Yusuke a blank look because he actually didn't know his name.

"Yusuke Urameshi." The greasy haired punk supplied unhappily.

"And Kazuma Kuwabara." Mitarai finished.

"I see…" Hagiri gave them all suspicious looks but turned his gaze back to Mitarai. "Come on Mitarai, they've told students to go home after going up to the principle and telling her they aren't dead." The blonde nodded and they left Yusuke and Kuwabara.

"I guess we better go report that we aren't dead either." Yusuke sighed. "If you ask me it's a shame Ms. Goodwin didn't get burned to a cinder…"

**……………**

The hospital room was very quiet with the outside noises dulled through the walls and door of Hiei's room. Kurama sat next to Hiei's bed, looking down at him sadly. The redhead couldn't bear to see Hiei in such bad condition, with an air mask over his mouth and nose and also a needle stuck into his left arm. But the quiet breathing and the fact that Kurama could see Hiei's chest rise and fall steadily, reassured him greatly.

Sighing, Kurama leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. Clearing his mind, the redhead suddenly saw an injured Hiei lying on a bed, much like he was now, and Kurama felt like it was his fault for Hiei's injuries. When he opened his eyes again he stared at the floor quietly…

Why does it feel like I've seen Hiei this way before? After all, we've only known each other for at least a week!

There was a soft knock on the door before Yukina and Hina entered.

"Hiei!" Hina sobbed and knelt by his bedside, which immediately stirred the sleeping Hiei.

"It's not as bad as it looks, Mom." Hiei groaned and sat up with much effort.

Yukina nodded and blinked away her own tears. "The doctor says you're recovering much faster than anyone thought."

"Hn, I'd never die in a fire." Hiei scoffed.

Kurama examined Hina and took notice of just how pale and shaken she was… simply put; she looked worse in health than when Kurama had first met her. Hina took one of her shaking hands and pulled something out of her pocket and then handed it to Hiei.

"I want you to keep this always, it's a charm and a family heirloom that should protect you." Hina explained softly.

Kurama bent down lower to get a better look and saw that what Hina was giving Hiei was a pendant of a small blue crystal which resembled a large tear drop. But he could tell that by the expression on Hiei's face, he didn't really care about the gem.

"Please don't scare me like that again, Hiei." Hina smiled weakly.

Hiei sighed and nodded. "I promise."

**TO BE CONTINUED**

* * *

Okay, earlier on in the chapter when Kurama closed his eyes and saw Hiei hurt, it was an old memory of when Kurama and Hiei first met in the series and how they fought and Kurama won by accident. But I wasn't sure if I got that across or not. Oh and the thing Hina gave Hiei was basically the tear gem she gave him in real life.


	16. Yusuke vs Sniper

**Kute Anime Kitty:** I love Mitarai too! Hey, if there were any other characters you would like me to add then tell me.

**KaraKurama:** Yes, I know it's confusing (sweat drops). I apologize. This is _NOT_ an AU even though it would seem like it but I can't explain why everything is the way it is without giving away the ending.

**Moonlit-kitsune:** Do you like the characters that have been added? Hm… I have yet to decide who shall be Ganondorf! But I will check out your story as soon as I can.

**Niana Kuonji: **w00t! Indeed.

**Queen of the Paperclips:** All hail the paperclip queen! I love your name. I'm glad you really enjoy this fic and I thank jus Kita for recommending it to you!

* * *

**Chapter Sixteen: Yusuke vs. Sniper **

Hiei was out of the hospital the very next day to Kurama's relief. But after that, there wasn't much that went on. During the weeks that the school was being repaired, school was canceled much to the joy of the students… that is until they heard it would all be made up during summer break.

"This sucks…" Yusuke groaned and walked down the sidewalk by himself. He hated having school during summer and to make matters worse, Keiko still wasn't speaking to him. Which also brought up another factor… why was that dream bothering him so much? It was the only thing he could think about ever since that night. "Man… I think I'll go to the arcade to relax and play a few games of 'Goblin City'."

Nodding to himself, Yusuke kicked a rock all the way to the arcade and then played 'Goblin City' for a while. Much to Yusuke's frustration, he kept losing before even getting to the Goblin King. "Damn it! Stupid game…"

"You suck!" A boy behind him laughed at his indignant defeat.

Angry as hell, Yusuke spun around and glared at the young boy with a light blue top on and dark blue shorts along with messy brown hair. "Shut up, brat!"

"My name is Amanuma, not brat." Amanuma pointed out with the same cocky grin on his face. "You really sucked on that level, want me to show you how a real gamer does it?"

"Piss off to your mommy for a diaper change, kid." Yusuke scoffed.

Amanuma frowned at Yusuke, clearly irritated now. "I bet you 1,000 yen that you can't beat me in any of the games here."

"I don't think so!" Yusuke growled. "I bet you 1,000 yen that I can kick your sorry little ass at the boxing game."

"Fine!" Amanuma challenged and they both stormed over to the boxing game.

It was a well-known fact that Yusuke had never lost a game when playing the boxing game because of his background as a street fighter. Well… he lost to Amanuma… the game master.

"Damn it! Shit! Friggin' hell!" Yusuke cursed at the machine and himself and also Amanuma too. "Screw our bet, you don't deserve 1,000 yen anyway!"

"We made a fair bet, now give me the money." Amanuma ordered.

"Forget it." Yusuke grabbed Amanuma by his shirt collar and drew back his fist when someone behind him grabbed his arm and twisted it behind his back, forcing him to release Amanuma. "Who the hell…?!"

Being forced to turn around against his will, Yusuke came face to face with Kaname Hagiri.

"You shouldn't beat up on kids just because you lost." Hagiri mocked Yusuke calmly.

This was just making Yusuke's day even worse. "I'm having a bad day so I'll clue you in on something… you don't want to piss me off today unless you want to be found lifeless in a ditch tomorrow morning."

Hagiri merely laughed at Yusuke's comment. "Is that so? From my point of view it doesn't seem like you'll be doing much of anything to hurt me right now." The older teen twisted Yusuke's arm to the point of almost breaking, just to prove his point. "Amanuma, get out of here."

The young boy sighed in disappointment. "But I wanted to watch you mop the floor with him…"

"Why you little—AGH!" Yusuke cringed as his arm was getting closer and closer to breaking in half.

Hagiri made sure Amanuma was out of sight before he led Yusuke outside of the arcade to an alleyway and then forced Yusuke against the wall. "I haven't liked you since I met you that day at school." The older teen informed Yusuke through gritted teeth.

"Seems I have that impression on most people." Yusuke grinned sarcastically before wincing again.

"Next time I catch you doing something that pisses me off then it will be you that is found lifeless in a ditch the next morning." Hagiri released Yusuke and walked off.

Yusuke stared after him and sighed.

**………………**

"I don't see how you can stand being in a greenhouse with all of those plants." Hiei admitted before tossing his jacket onto Kurama's couch and sitting down.

The redhead laughed light heartedly. "Well I can't quite understand your fascination with fire either."

The crimson-eyed teen glanced around suspiciously. "Is your family home…?"

A devious grin spread across Kurama's face and he sat down extremely close to Hiei before whispering into his ear. "No… they won't be back until late this evening."

The same devious grin came across Hiei's features. "That's good to hear…"

Kurama snaked his arm around Hiei's waist and pulled him closer to himself and then tenderly placed a kiss on Hiei's lips. But suddenly there came a sound that made them both jump. It was the goddamn phone…

"Hang on…" Kurama sighed and answered it. He nodded his head slowly and then glanced at Hiei. "It's for you."

"What?" Hiei got to his feet and answered the phone. "Hello?" There was a long pause before the teen's crimson eyes widened and the phone slipped from his hand, clattering to the floor.

**TO BE CONTINUED**

* * *

You know what? I've noticed that Kurama is a little on the OOC side. Is that a good or bad thing? But I guess it would make sense for them all to be a little OOC because of their given situation. Anyway, hope you like the next chapter as well!


	17. An Old Acquaintance

**Chapter Seventeen: An Old Acquaintance**

Surprised by Hiei's reaction, Kurama delicately picked up the phone. "What's happened, Yukina?"

Yukina's sobs could be heard very clearly over the phone and she choked out, "Mom died in the hospital just now."

All of the color in Kurama's face vanished and he glanced at Hiei's expressionless face before continuing. "We'll be there at the hospital in a minute, Yukina."

"Okay…" Yukina whimpered and hung up, letting the dial tone ring in Kurama's ear for several seconds before placing the phone back on the receiver. "Are you okay, Hiei?"

Hiei's red eyes were staring down at the floor blankly, with no hint of emotion. And he did not reply to Kurama's question immediately.

"I'm more worried about Yukina…" He muttered and quickly grabbed his black jacket from the couch and hurried out the door with Kurama following at his heels, not even bothering to lock the door.

They reached the hospital in a matter of minutes with a tense silence hanging over them. A nurse directed them to Hina's room and when they entered, Hiei stood away from the bed; neither comforting Yukina nor going to the bedside of his deceased mother.

Yukina was sitting in a chair by Hina's side, tears staining her beautiful face and her crimson eyes cast down to her lap. Hina looked eerily pale but other than that, she looked… peaceful…

Death had taken away all of her pain, exhaustion, and stress... giving her a very relaxed look.

When Hiei didn't make any attempt to continue forward towards the bed, Kurama put his arm around Hiei and led him closer to Hina's bedside. Then the redhead turned his attention to Yukina, "Are you all right, Yukina…?"

Gently brushing away her tears, Yukina nodded slowly. "I'll be ok… Mom said she lived life to the fullest while she could… and she was very proud of us both…"

Hiei shrugged Kurama's arm off of his shoulder and reached around his neck, stopping dead. "Don't stay out too late, Yukina." Hiei ordered and swiftly exited the room without another word.

"Hiei!" Kurama shouted, confused by his lover's sudden reaction.

Yukina gazed at the doorway for a long time before looking up at Kurama with a gentle smile. "Do not worry, Shuuichi. Hiei doesn't want to show how upset this has made him. So if you give him some time alone, he'll be fine."

"Are you sure?" The redhead glanced at the doorway and then turned back to Yukina with an uncertain expression.

"Yes." Yukina nodded and gave her mother one last look before rising to leave. "You're a very kind person, Shuuichi."

"I do not agree with you." Kurama sighed and reflected upon all the times that he felt he had hurt others or betrayed them.

"It shows in your eyes, you know." Yukina smiled up at Kurama weakly. "Even the kindest of people end up hurting others, but to be able to regret it shows that you are kind. Besides, not many people would worry about Hiei as much as you do."

"I guess." The redhead laughed slightly and then rubbed his arm, a little uncomfortable with being alone with Yukina.

"Have a good evening, Shuuichi. I wish to speak with Kazuma now. So if you'll excuse me." And with a polite bow Yukina left, leaving Kurama alone in Hina's room. Sighing, the redhead departed the hospital and decided to try and call Hiei later that evening if he was at home.

When the redhead arrived back at his empty house, he sifted through the day's mail until he came across a postcard addressed to him. All the color drained from Kurama's face when he saw whom it was from. _Why has he come back!_ Glancing at the return address, Kurama left Shiori a note stating he wouldn't be too late getting home. With that done, the redhead burst outside into the cool autumn weather and broke into a run. _Why did he have to come back after so long and now that I sort of have a relationship with Hiei?_

Skidding to a halt, Kurama gasped for breath outside of the house that he had been searching for. Trying to calm his racing heart, Kurama approached the door slowly. Summoning up all of his wits, the redhead rapped sharply on the wooden door. It opened wide to reveal a lean teenage guy with his long black hair tied back in a ponytail and clad in black leather.

"Kuronue…" Kurama breathed softly.

Kuronue gave the redhead a cocky grin. "I'm back, Kurama."

"Why!" Kurama demanded in despair.

"Because…" Kuronue began gently, closing the space between them. "I missed you."

The older teen was about to embrace his former friend and lover when Kurama turned away. "I shouldn't have come to see you…" The redhead whispered through gritted teeth. "Especially after you left me on a whim."

"Don't say that, Kurama!" Kuronue grabbed the redhead's arm and pulled him closer. "I'm sorry I left… I know it's been a year but I've missed you so much!" Kuronue protested.

"No… I shouldn't have come. I don't know what I was thinking." Kurama broke away from Kuronue's grasp and started walking out of the house.

The lean teenager stood in shock for a minute before grabbing Kurama's arm once again and pulling him back into the house, slamming the front door shut. The redhead found himself being turned around and then his lips were forcefully met with Kuronue's.

_No… this isn't right…_

Kuronue's tongue parted Kurama's lips with ease while his hands slid down to rest on the redhead's hips. Kurama could no longer fight against his confined love for Kuronue.

_No! Kuronue left me and now I love Hiei!_

Despite Kurama's voice of reason in his head telling him not to do this, his desires told the voice to put a sock in it. Unable to stop himself at this point, Kurama wrapped his arms around Kuronue's neck and the older teen led the redhead over to the couch and together they lay down.

"How about you spend the night?" Kuronue grinned.

"I'll have to call Shiori." Kurama replied slyly.

**TO BE CONTINUED**


End file.
